America's Story (part 7) - When Reagan was shot

Rawhide!

It was the name of a great TV Western of the 1960s, starring Clint Eastwood. But it was also the secret service code-name for President Ronald Reagan.

As an actor who had once starred in Westerns (host of and guest appearances in Death Valley Days, guest appearances in Wagon Train and Zane Grey Theater, Cattle Queen of Montana, The Last Outpost, Santa Fe Trail - where he played George Custer, ...), President Reagan quite liked that code-name, Rawhide.

But not long after being sworn in as the 40th President of the United States, Rawhide was in for a rough ride ...

Seventy days into his presidency, the Reagan administration had not gotten off to a good start. The resounding victory in November, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter was forgotten.  What should have been the honeymoon period for a new president was over in mid-March.

With proposed cuts in federal spending, the opposition party, the Democrats, had criticized the President for not caring about the poor. His decision to send military advisers to El Salvador echoed fears of another Vietnam.  President Reagan's approval rating had dropped to 59 percent. This had been the lowest approval rating in modern times at this point in office.

Difficult days were ahead ...

Then came

* March 30, 1981 *

This day could have been the day the President of the United States was assassinated - and nearly was. And the clip below shows some of the chaos of that day:





Del Quentin Wilber chronicled that day in his book, aptly titled -

Rawhide Down - the Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan.

And the book has the flavor of an episode of the TV series, 24.  The author gives a timeline of what happened that day from his site- RawhideDown.com.  The link below is a great resource to piece together the chaos.

(click on the link below for the interactive site)

* Timeline of March 30, 1981

Leaving the Hilton after giving a speech to the AFL-CIO, the President did not know he had been shot by would-be assassin John Hinckley, Jr. ... neither did the secret service. But after walking into George Washington University Hospital, the President collapsed and almost died.

Meanwhile, the Vice President, George H. W. Bush, was on Air Force Two over Texas and out of the loop of constant contact of real-time events. The confusion of what had just happened and who was in charge played out badly in the media as if the Keystone Cops were running the country.

Fortunately at this time, the confluence of trained secret service agents and advancement in trauma medicine saved the life of the 40th President of the United States. However, presidents who had been shot before had not come to a such good end.

Previous Assassinations of Presidents

(It was not just the assassins' bullets that killed them.)

Death by "bad" or "inadequate" medicine ...

James Garfield was in office for four months when an assassin shot him twice in 1881. The wounds were not mortal, but the bad doctoring - compounded by a medicine in those days that had not fully grasped the idea of germs - were fatal.

President Garfield suffered for 80 days, wasting away from 210 pounds to 130, in the sweltering summer in Washington DC before air conditioning. He suffered greatly by the infection induced by the surgeons, who so ineptly tried to remove the bullet - and never did.  President Garfield finally passed away from a heart attack, not from the original three inch wound, which the doctors turned 20 inch contaminated gash.

William McKinley was reelected in 1900 along with his running mate, Theodore Roosevelt. September 1901, a self-proclaimed anarchist shot the President in the stomach. He lingered for eight days before succumbing to gangrene and infection. Again, good medicine could have saved him. In all fairness, antibiotics were unknown at that time.

Death by incompetence ...

Let's look at the most famous assassinations in American history. What is tragic is that the assassination may have been prevented if those protecting their presidents cared about their job or had been adequately trained.

Abraham Lincoln:

I garnered much information about the assassination of the 16th President of the United States from Bill O'Reilly's Book - Killing Lincoln. (It's an excellent read.)  Two weeks before his assassination, the President had a premonition of his death and continued to act fatalistic concerning the many threats on his life.

The man assigned to protect Mr. Lincoln and his entourage at the Ford Theater was Washington D.C. policeman John Frederick Parker. Parker was a slacker and the people around him all knew it. Even Lincoln.  Clearly, security standards were abysmal.

That fateful Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Parker left his post guarding the President's box. He went next door to get a drink and never came back. The book, Killing Lincoln, gives the account that at about ten o'clock John Wilkes Booth stopped by for a shot whiskey, sitting only a few feet away from Parker.

Left unguarded, Booth had easy access and shot the President - and the rest is history. Amazingly, Parker was acquitted and unpunished for dereliction of duty. Lesson painfully learned was to vet the presidents' guards more seriously.

John F. Kennedy:

November 22, 1963 in Dallas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy, who was riding in an open limousine with the first lady, the Governor of Texas and his wife.

Yet, the driver did not recognize the sound of gunfire when the first shot whizzed by the limousine. When the second shot hit the President and the Governor, the driver slowed down to glance behind him to see what was happening. At this point, neither the secret service agents nor the driver took any evasive actions.

Then came the third shot.  That one was fatal.  It killed the President ... and again, the rest is history.

Who knows?  With proper training of the driver and the agents, they may have recognized trouble from the get-go and taken evasive action to save the President's life. But since then, more hard lessons were learned.  The agents now are more thoroughly trained.

The Marvels of Modern Medicine ...

As in the cases of Presidents Garfield and McKinley, it was the infections, not the initial wounds, that killed them. Since then, we know about germs and have drugs that effectively fight infections.

Trauma centers in hospitals were unknown in the 1960s and early 1970s. Before then, soldiers wounded in combat had a greater chance of survival than someone getting shot in the inner cities. But with advances in trauma medicine, units came into being in the late 1970s - especially at George Washington University Hospital in Washington DC.

Lessons Learned ...

Rawhide Down fills in the minute by minute details of the timeline and the key players leading up to the day President Reagan was shot and its ensuing events. Fortunately, the agents had learned the lessons from the tragic mistakes of the past, such as:

* Training the President's body guards, which had been lacking during the times of Lincoln and Kennedy.

* The advances in trauma medicine, something unknown in the time of Garfield and McKinley.

All the above saved President Reagan, who would have otherwise been dead within twenty of the shooting.

A brand plucked out of the fire?

John Wesley, founder of the Methodist denomination, came close to burning to death at five years old when he was trapped inside a house on fire. He was snatched before the flames consumed the house as well as himself. Susannah, his mother, saw the hand of God in the rescue of her son. Susannah called John - a brand plucked from the burning (reference Zechariah 3:2).

Likewise, President Reagan came very close to dying while just three months in office. Throughout the ordeal of the shootings, the President still showed an optimism and a concern for those about him. In the epilogue of Rawhide Down, the President wrote in an entry about his near assassination:

Whatever happens now I owe my life to God and will try to serve him in every way I can.

Indeed, President Reagan pressed on for the next eight years with ups and down and was mostly successful. Under his watch after previous years of malaise, the Spirit of America revived with renewed optimism. Taxes were reduced. The economy recovered from stagflation and boomed.  Defense was beefed up. Reagan did not cave in to appease the Soviet Union.   And shortly after he left office, the Berlin Wall came tumbling down and the Soviet Union fell apart.

What was meant for evil, God had turned to good. (Genesis 50:20)

The Saving of Ronald Reagan and renewing our national spirit is part of America's Story 
which is to be continued ...

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Previous posts on America's Story:

America's Story (part 1) - The Speech that redefined us, November 19, 1863 (2011)

America's Story (part 2) - Savages! (2011)

America's Story (part 3) - Over There - 1917, 1941 (2011)

America's Story (part 4) - Christmas 1944, when we said NUTS to the enemy (2011)

America's Story (part 5) - Amazing Grace (2012)

America's Story (part 6) - GI Joe Tuskegee Airmen (2012)

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One of my favorite Reagan speeches:  Rendezvous with Destiny

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Other accounts:


This site on B-movies - AwesomeBmovies.com:

* The Movie That Saved Ronald Reagan’s Life.

Recently there has been a special on cable on the Military channel -

* Saving Ronald Reagan

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Photos from:
Google Books: Rawhide Down
Wikipedia Commons: Lincoln, Kennedy, surgeons

ZAMM (part 5) - Sheldon vs Penny

Penny!  ...  knock! knock! ...  Penny! ...  knock! knock! ... Penny! ...  knock! knock! ...

So knocks the compulsive Dr. Sheldon Cooper on the door of the cute aspiring actress from Nebraska across the hall.

This is a familiar recurring scene in the TV show, The Big Bang Theory.

What makes this comedy work is the tension between Sheldon (with his scientific geek friends) and Penny.  They conflict with each other's world views of different visions of reality. Sheldon looks for the underlying scientific reality - in everything.  Penny sees the immediate artist appearance - she is in the moment.

The opposite personalities of Penny and Sheldon resemble that of Robert Pirsig - author of  Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZAMM) - and John and Sylvia Sutherland, the author's traveling companions for part of his road trip described in his book.  This time, Sheldon and Penny are a 21st century update (with more humor) of the clash of worldviews between Pirsig and the Sutherlands of the late 1960s.

Like Penny, the Sutherlands do no like technology - they loathe it.  Meanwhile the author really gets into it, like Sheldon, especially when he has become obsessed with the meaning and concept of values to literally the point of insanity.  Pirsig's thoughts on "Motorcycle Maintenance" are a touchstone into the transcendental - the higher meaning.

But to keep this simple ...

Let's look at the Penny - Sheldon Interaction

To set up the following clip from the 3rd season, Sheldon's roommate and fellow physicist, Leonard, is dating Penny.  To understand Leonard better, Penny asks Sheldon for help in understanding physics.




For a longer scene containing this clips - (I was not allowed to embed this one) - check out:  The Big Bang Theory - Sheldon teaches Penny Physics

This scene humorously portrays this conflict of visions of reality, which Pirsig describes when he was with the Sutherlands.  Later in ZAMM, the author postulates dividing reality in two - Classic (intellectual) and Romantic (pre-intellectual).

The two characters of the sitcom personify this philosophical split of world view.  So let's look at  ...

Sheldon vs. Penny

To paraphrase Shakespeare - There's a method in madness and also a madness in method.  

Penny, the Romantic

Disorganized as seen her cluttered apartment, seemingly scatter-brained at times, Penny's madness has a method.

Penny does not have the formal schooling nor the encyclopedia knowledge as Sheldon, but on many occasions she demonstrates that she indeed smart.  She is the present moment, aware of her environs and what's going on in pop culture.  She is fully functional in society as she supports herself as a waitress, which demands satisfaction from her customers.  She has "street smarts" and knows how to survive.

Aspiring to be an actress, Penny pursues a goal in which she can practice her craft as daunting as founding a start-up company.  Both take gumption, perseverance, and applying a diverse skill set to break into a difficult field.  Facing much rejection and disappointment, she does not give up, but keeps on going.

Sheldon, the Classic

In contrast to Penny, Sheldon's method borders on madness.

Sheldon is a human output version of Google, uses techno-jargon as his native language, and dissects and categorizes reality ad infinitum.  He is driven and very focused in his pursuits as a theoretical physicist.   Like Pirsig, Dr. Sheldon Cooper has a very high IQ.  His quest for unlocking the deep secrets of physics are as elusive as Pirsig's quest of understanding Quality.

Yet, Sheldon seems dysfunctional in society.   He is OCD to distraction.  His learned helplessness gives rise to his manipulation of his friends to do everyday things for him.  He doesn't or can't drive and depends on his friends - like Penny for rides.   Likewise having a very high opinion of himself, he brags of his mental superiority  - a trait  that shows that he really is dumb as dirt in the social skills department.  He would not survive without a little help from his friends.

Who's the "smartest" of them all?

I go with Penny.

(And I am a recovering physics major  - I understand Sheldon very well.   But I also love the arts and play the flute - I have a lot of "Penny" in me.)

Now, for the greater picture .... the transcendental of Sheldon vs Penny ...

Art vs Science

The Chautauqua in ZAMM points that modern western culture has disconnected the arts from the sciences.  In other cultures, other times, the arts and sciences have always been connected with each other - bound up with the spiritual.   Yet, the arts and science are not opposed or mutually exclusive, but complement one other - part of a whole experience of reality.

If you have 45 minutes, below is a very good presentation of this - the connections between art and physics.




In conclusion, the arts and science are very much in sync with each other.

It comes down to integrating -

Zen - the spiritual part, the caring

and the

Art - creativity as expressed in the arts, thinking outside the box, being in the moment

of

Motorcycle Maintenance - science and technology, the practical, searching for the deeper underlying meaning


Likewise, the Pennys and Sheldons of this world are all part of the whole and need each other to fully function.

Question:  Are you a Penny?  A Sheldon?  A little bit of both?

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Previous articles in the ZAMM series:

ZAMM (part 1) - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

ZAMM (part 2) - Journey through Life

ZAMM (part 3) - Chautauqua, then and now

ZAMM (part 4) - Ghosts

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Photo from everystockphoto.com: TBBT

Culture 101 (part 1) - Reagan's Challenge

This coming Monday - February 20, 2012 - marks President's Day. 

And what more appropriate tribute to this holiday than to impart some of the wisdom of one of the greatest presidents in the 20th century (in my humble opinion) as well as kick off a new series -

Culture 101

 First of all ...
 
Let's rock through the latter half of the 20th century

As a baby boomer, I have seen a lot in the last half century.  When I crunch the numbers, I shudder to think that I have lived between one fifth to one fourth of American History - if you reckon from 1776.

1950s -

In the middle of the Eisenhower administration, the country (the 1950s) seemed to have breathed a sigh of relief after World War Two, then to be followed 5 short years later by the "conflict" in Korea. Yet, for most of the 1950s, the times seemed more innocent and the nation had more of  a sense of optimism.

1960s -

But as we entered the 1960s, the tranquil life of "Leave it to Beaver" was shaken with the rumblings of the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, the unpopular War in Vietnam, the Counter-Culture, assassinations (JFK, RFK, MLK), the frantic Space Race to the Moon.

1970s -

No relief came in the 1970s.  Watergate destroyed Nixon.  Ford (the only president not to elected as either president and vice president) fizzled in two short years.  The next four years of Carter brought another serious energy crisis with long gas lines, the Iran hostage crisis, high inflation, and a sense of national malaise.

Innocence seemed lost - though it may be argued we never had it in the first place.

1980s -

Amid pessimism, national humiliation, high inflation, deep recession, we elected Ronald Reagan - former movie star and governor of California - as the 40th President of the United States.  One of the great achievements of the Reagan years during the 1980s was bringing back a sense of optimism.

On January 11,1989, Ronald Reagan gave his farewell address to the nation.  The video clip is below.





The last part of the speech, the President issued a warning of teaching our children what -

"America is and what she represents
in the long history of the world."

Shortly, President Reagan makes this point -

"So, we've got to teach history based not on what's in fashion but what's important -- why the Pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo meant."

One reason I started the series,  America's Story, was to remind viewers (and especially myself) who we are as a people.

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Check out the previous posts on America's Story:


America's Story (part 1) - The Speech that redefined us, November 19, 1863 (2011)

America's Story (part 2) - Savages! (2011)

America's Story (part 3) - Over There - 1917, 1941 (2011)

America's Story (part 4) - Christmas 1944, when we said NUTS to the enemy (2011)

America's Story (part 5) - Amazing Grace (2012)

America's Story (part 6) - GI Joe Tuskegee Airmen (2012)


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Likewise, Reagan spoke of his desire for an "informed patriotism." 

The baby boomers and the greatest generation have grown up in a different America than the Generation X-ers and later generations.  Before Generation X, the family, the institutions, schools, the neighborhood had imbued a love of country.  And if that failed, there was sense of patriotism in the popular culture.

"The movies celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced the idea that America was special. TV was like that, too, through the mid-sixties."

Some things I have already blogged about were the positive influence of some movies and TV shows and even books in our culture.

Here they are:

Movies:

Mary Poppins:

I first saw Mary Poppins (1964)  movie as a child.  Later, I watched it as an adult, but this time recognized in the story line  a serious message of the importance of fathers in the lives of their children.  The magic and the fun songs made the movie delightful for us little and big kids alike, but what Mary and her friend Bert did to bring the family together was wonderful - especially in this "me" culture strewn with broken and dysfunctional families. 


Mary Poppins (Part 1) - from 1910 to 2010  (2010)

Mary Poppins (Part 2) - It's a Wonderful Life? (2010)

Mary Poppins (Part 3) - Take your kids to work day? (2010)

Mary Poppins (Part 4) - Go Fly a Kite! (2010)



Barbie:

I grew up with Barbie dolls.  Much has been said about the influence of the Barbie franchise - good and bad.  The last ten to fifteen years Barbie made it into movies ... at least videos and DVDs.  I was curious and checked out some of these.  And I was pleasantly surprised.   The characters Barbie portrayed showed great character, something to be emulated.

Barbie ought to be in pictures - and she is  (2011)


TV shows:

The Beverly Hillbillies:

The premise for this 1960s sitcom, The Beverly Hillbillies (1962 - 1971), is displacement - a bunch of hicks in a sophisticated society.  It's been done many times.

Yet, the basic goodness Clampett family drew a sharp contrast against the background of the sophistication of Beverly Hills.  This was something that was missed in the movie.  It reminded me of the prophet Amos going to Bethel.

Beverly Hillbillies and Amos - country folk in the big city (2010)

Gilligan's Island:

One episode in the Gilligan Island (1964 - 1967) series really spoke to me and I blogged about it for a New Year's message.  Generally, the character Gilligan was portrayed as incompetent, inept, dumb as a bang of hammers.  But not in this episode - Diogenes, will you please go home?  Here, Gilligan shows great character - honesty, meekness, a pure heart - in contrast to his more worldly wise fellow castaways.

New Year's Lessons from Gilligan's Island (2010)

Books:

Other than the Bible, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is one of the books that has influenced me in the way I look at things.  It addresses the sorry disconnect in our society and how to integrate science/technology, art, and the spiritual.

Consequently, I have started a series on it - ZAMM (short for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, of course):


ZAMM (part 1) - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance  (2011)

ZAMM (part 2) - Journey through Life  (2011)

ZAMM (part 3) - Chautauqua, then and now  (2011)

ZAMM (part 4) - Ghosts  (2011)

and I hope to continue with more ...

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I conclude this first in the series of Culture 101 with this quote from Reagan's Farewell Address -

"We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom -- freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs production [protection]."

And with this challenge and with God's grace, I hope to be many more in this series.


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Related posts:

America in Decline?! (2011)

3 birthdays, 3 presidents, 3 centuries, 3 defining wars ...  (2011)

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Photo from Wikipedia:  Ronald Reagan in a cowboy hat

America's Story (part 6) - GI Joe Tuskegee Airmen

This February 2012 has been designated African American History Month.

And one of the recent movies released last month was so timely in celebrating African American history - Red Tails, the story of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War Two.

(It has not played yet in my neck of woods. I know. I'm really out in the sticks.)

And the story of the Tuskegee Airmen still resonates well beyond the war throughout the 20th century and into the 21st.

Back in the days when I worked outside the home for pay, I was employed by a big company with a diverse workforce. Before long, diversity training got phased in considered as serious a business as safety or security training.

In fact, diversity training had become a requirement in all major companies - especially those that get government contracts.

Frankly, I thought the mandatory diversity classes were very good. They boiled down to the Golden Rule - do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

It's not all about you.

Try to empathized with your fellow co-worker, who may (and most likely has) come from a different culture than yours.

All this was very good stuff ... if only everyone would put these principles into practice, instead of just going through the motions to present a good image to the public and our customers.

Diversity on one particular project

On one of my stints at the turn of this century, I was on a project composed of many small teams. My small group was lead by an African American, who conscientiously worked hard to get us to bond and focus on the common good of the project. Looking back, that was something I really respect him for doing. Frankly, I had some leads, who I swear were working for the competition. Their poor management skills and big egos divided and totally demoralized the team.

Happily, this was not the case this go around. Though small, our team on this particular project was diverse. One programmer was of Hispanic origin. Two of the engineers from different parts of Asia - one a young man, whose family had been one of the Vietnamese Boat people that sought refuge in the United States, and another a very sharp immigrant from Sri Lanka. Then there was little of me - a girl from a small town in Montana.

Individual space

In our space in a common cubicle, we had some room to express ourselves. Our computers back then used CRT monitors - not the thin flat screen. They were more clunky, but the tops of the monitors allotted much space to park things on. I had a small collection of stuffed cats that perched on my monitors looking down on me and my computer mice. It earned me the nickname - Catwoman.

Gosh!I would kill to look like Michelle Pfieffer in the movie, Batman Returns (1992) .

My African American lead also had his personal stuff - a collection of GI Joe dolls ... er ... I should say "action figures."

GI Joe Action Figures - Barbie dolls for guys?

Here is the skinny on GI Joes dolls ... er ... action figures -



My lead just didn't have any old GI Joe collection. He had a special collection of GI Joe action figures - the Tuskegee Airmen - as show here: GI Joe Tuskegee Airmen. His were still in the collector's box.

I could tell that these action figures meant a lot to him, especially when learning about their story of the pursuit of excellence against great opposition (stuff legends are made of) as seen in this video clip:




Equal Opportunity?

My company promoted that they were an equal opportunity employer and respected diversity. A few times, I saw pictures of my lead in the company newspaper shaking hands with someone in upper management. My lead was being honored for his work in reaching out to the African American and other minority communities. That press was worth a lot to the company in PR capital.

But reality can be different than the image.

In my early years with the company, pictures of management in organizational charts gave the impression that it was an exclusive white males' club. And indeed it was. Some seemed blessed with "the look" and had an easy and fast track into management. Yet, many had to prove themselves over and over, again. Only after much time and perseverance did the glass ceiling finally start to crack.

To the company's great credit, overt racism has been obliterated and severely sanctioned. But prejudice and discrimination are equal opportunity maladies that cross all races and genders. Prejudging individuals just becomes more covert and so it's much harder to detect and sanction.

As a casual observer, I could see that my lead was not given an easy pass and had to prove himself over and over, again. I see why he identified himself with the Tuskegee Airmen and their struggles, which were much greater than his. Yet, their story inspired pursuit of excellence and gumption to keep on keeping on in face of covert prejudice ... even if doing the right thing would go unrewarded or unrecognized in our lifetime.

Never give up. Keep on keeping on. Do the right thing.

In the spirit of African American History Month, I salute my lead with the GI Joe collection of Tuskegee Airmen! The way he quietly pushed on without complaint still inspires me as I face new challenges in the next stages of my life. Frankly, he was one of the best leads I had in my working life, who believed in building up people, instead of tearing them down.


The Tuskegee Airmen's pursuit of excellence in face of great adversity is part of America's story

which is to be continued. ...

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For other posts in the America's Story series:

America's Story (part 1) - The Speech that redefined us, November 19, 1863 (2011)

America's Story (part 2) - Savages! (2011)

America's Story (part 3) - Over There - 1917, 1941 (2011)

America's Story (part 4) - Christmas 1944, when we said NUTS to the enemy (2011)

America's Story (part 5) - Amazing Grace (2012)

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For other posts about February:

Groundhog Day - Time for a do-over? (2010)

The US Presidents Remembered in February (2010)

Who said George Washington will be the Greatest Man in the World? (2010)

3 birthdays, 3 presidents, 3 centuries, 3 defining wars ... (2011)


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Photo from everystockphoto.com: Tuskegee Airmen

What a Ham I am (Part 5) - Winter in the Rockies

White Road Black Sky

Work had taken us (me and my OM) many places.

(For non-Hams, OM is lingo for "Old Man" - a guy, a husband in my case.)

This was back in the days when I worked outside the home ... for pay.

One stint was the Rocky Mountain region. We both worked at different sides of town but lived in the country.

Country living did have its advantages - the elbow room, the forests, the friendly neighbors, who were not too close. But there was the downside ... like when we were working in the city ... and the weather would take a turn for the worse ... and there were the nasty road conditions with miles to go before we sleep ...

But there was and still is an old saying in these parts -

If you don't like the weather, just wait a little bit and it will change.

Sometimes for worse ... real fast.

In these environs, we were granted snow days - when officials cancelled school and government offices and businesses dismissed non-essential workers for safety concerns. One time, a snow day was called at the local military bases, yet the school districts had not made that same call for their students. The kids stayed in class. And the big anticipated snow storm did not pan out.

Why does my kid have to go to school and "Rambo" gets the day off?

That was the complaint of one of the callers on a local talk show the next day. Oh, the military would not live this one down! So government and businesses were a little gun shy to a declare a snow day ... which was not necessarily a good thing.

Not long after that "Rambo" call, an Albuquerque Low brought in a ton of snow. Workers were dismissed eventually ... but perhaps a little too late to get home safely before feeling the full fury of the storm.

At that time, I was driving a small car (Toyota Tercel), a 4WD, and thought I was doing real well though I moved quite slowly in the traffic. I finally crept out of town onto a well traveled road passing some major businesses. Only a few more miles to get to my home in the country.

On the more open road, though, the wind was blowing awfully fierce creating white out conditions. I thought I was following the reflectors along the side of the road. But it turned out I was on the wrong side. Then I got stuck ... in my 4WD ... in a snow bank ... in a blizzard. And I did what many other women might have done under these circumstances ...

I cried.

Then this large SUV drove by.

The driver saw me - this woman in distress. He had just dropped a fellow co-worker in the country and was on his way home in town. He picked me up and dropped me off at the edge of town, where I got a room for the night.

I called my OM, who was already home safe. He drove a larger car much like a small SUV (Mitsubishi Montero - which we affectionately called "Monty"), also a 4WD with higher clearance.

Beating me home, OM had been on the air, talking to a Ham with a mobile rig in a big pickup truck trying to find me. He had not heard from me for a while since I had left work. He was glad when I called from the motel and that I was safe. The next day, weather clear, OM picked me up, and eventually we recovered my car - in the large parking lot of one of the big businesses out of town - towed there among many other cars stuck in the snow like mine was.

Why didn't I just call on a cell phone?

This was the 1980s. Cell phones were not yet ubiquitous. What coverage that there was for existing cell phones was extremely limited, such as shown below in this vintage ad:



A mobile ham rig was the thing to have. For you old timers, remember the popularity of CBs, especially in the 1970s? CBers were kind of like Hams, but they didn't have to get a license. (A sore point for serious Hams of that day.)

Fast forward a few years.

When we still worked in town and lived in the country, another storm was forecast to move in one evening. After work, I had a music lesson scheduled, which meant I was coming home later than usual ... about the time the storm was due. This time, OM insisted that I take "Monty" with a 2 meter ham radio rig in it. And I did.

Weather was somewhat decent after work. But after my lesson, conditions changed quickly. The roads were worse than snowy. They were icy ... and most dangerous. But in Monty I was doing fine driving up a main north to south road at the edge of town, which had recently been expanded to a four lanes - two lanes each way with street lights on the dividers.

Why is that car going the wrong way?

That's what I thought when I spotted a pickup truck ahead, stopped in the middle of the two lanes, with lights shining the wrong way - right at me. As I got closer, I saw a woman in the cab with the wheel well of her truck smashed in.

I stopped to assist and learned her story. Her truck had slid on the icy road, spun around a full 180 degrees and struck one of the light poles in the divider between the lanes. She was a little shaken and wanted to get a hold of her husband.

Fortunately, I drove Monty with the 2 meter mobile ham radio rig. I got on the air and called for help. Immediately, I heard the familiar voice of a friend that I knew from the local ham radio club - a Marine Vet (he had fought in the South Pacific during World War Two and knew code really well). Retired and snugly nestled in his man cave, Marine Vet was monitoring the net when he recognzied my voice and call sign.

Meanwhile, my OM was monitoring the net with the ham radio a rig at work and heard me talking with Marine Vet about some accident.

Oh, no! She wrecked my car!

Those were my OM's first thoughts. He broke in, but got quickly up to speed on the situation. And Marine Vet called the woman's husband on the land line and gave our location.

But we were not out of the woods - or should I say - out of the middle of the road, yet.

The truck was still pointed the wrong way - a hazard to all who drove on the ice with reduced visibility. With the smashed wheel well, the woman could not turn the wheels of her truck to move it to the side. So we both huddled inside Monty in a more safe place along the side of the road and waited for her husband.

A Good Samaritan on two wheels?

As the snow was blowing, a most dedicated bicyclist pedaled by us, riding on the snow and ice, much like this guy in the video clip below. But this guy wore the tight black spandex pants with the padding on the seat and was not a bit fazed by the storm. Clearly, bicycling was very serious business to him.



The cyclist stopped at the scene of the accident and heard our tale of the truck and that we were not able to move it out of the middle of the road.

No problem. The man was as skilled at driving a smashed-in truck as he was cycling in a snow storm. Though the bashed in side hindered turning the wheels, he maneuvered the truck off to the side of the road ... something we could not figure out how to do.

Good deed done, this Good Samaritan got back on his mountain bike and pedalled up the road - disappearing into a curtain of snow.

An angel on two wheels?

The Lord works in mysterious ways ...

We waited until the husband came and rescued his wife. Then I drove Monty back home arriving much later than planned.

An eclectic cast of rescuers came together this snowy day. I would not have happened on the scene if I had not been going home later than usual, delayed from taking a music lesson after work. My OM was prescient to insist that I drive his car with the 2 meter rig that day. A retired World War Two Marine Vet happened to be monitoring the net that evening. And an unknown bicyclist happened to come across us, who was willing to help and knew how to drive really well.

And so ends this winter tale of my first emergency use of ham radio by myself.

Question: Any winter tales to share?

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Previous posts in the What a Ham I am series:

What a Ham I am (Part 1) - moving on up! (2011)

What a Ham I am (Part 2) - When lightening strikes (2011)

What a Ham I am (Part 3) - Hams make Contact (2011)

What a Ham I am (Part 4): Have you hugged your Elmer today? (2011)

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Post on similar subject:

Advice for all seasons - Be safe (2011)


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Photo from everystockphoto.com: White Road Black Sky

Anastasis (part 4) - Back to which Bethel?

Amos

Back to Bethel?

Which one?

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:

And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

Amos 8:11-12
(King James Version)


What has Bethel have to do with this most unusual famine?

Everything.


The point made in the previous post in the Anastasis series, Famine, was that one of God's judgements is silence.

These verses are the theme of Anastasis, the Forbidden Book Concealed - the first book of the trilogy The Forbidden Book and the Upside Down Kingdom .

Here is the back story on these verses and what I have learned researching the prophet, Amos.


Who was Amos?

Not that much is known about him. He was a Jew living in the southern kingdom of Judah and an Old Testament prophet. Before the Lord called him, he was a herdsman and gatherer of sycamore fruit (Amos 7:14).

Where was he from?

Amos was from Tekoa (Amos 1:1), about six miles southeast of Bethlehem, a hilly ridge overlooking the desert wilderness down to the edge of the Dead Sea.

Map: http://bibleatlas.org/tekoa.htm

When did he prophesy?

He prophesied from about 776 – 763 B.C. during the reigns of Jeroboam II, king of Israel, and Uzziah, king of Judah, two years before the earthquake (Amos 1:1). Two hundred years later, Zechariah 14:5 mentions this same earthquake during the time of Amos.

Amos was also a contemporary of Jonah, Hosea, and later Micah.

Where did he preach?

The Lord called Amos to minister in the northern kingdom where he preached at the king’s chapel in Bethel (Amos 7:13).

Some background on Bethel:

Location:

* Bethel is about 12 miles north of Jerusalem.

* Map: http://bibleatlas.org/bethel.htm

Meaning:

* Bethel means "House of God" from the Hebrew word "beth" for "house" and "el" for "God."

* Its original name was Luz for light (Genesis 35:6.)

First mention:

Bethel is first mentioned in Genesis 12:8, after Abram (later known as Abraham) was called out of Ur of the Chaldeans to the land of Canaan.

Significance:

Bethel had become quite significant to Abraham’s grandson Jacob. When Jacob was fleeing from the wrath of his brother Esau, he fell asleep on a stone and had a dream of a ladder, reaching up to heaven with angels ascending and descending on it. (Hence, from here is derived the term "Jacob’s Ladder.")



Above the ladder, the Lord restates the promises made to Abraham and Isaac, to give Jacob the land and bless his descendants. When Jacob awoke quite awed by the vision, he anointed the stone with oil and called the place "Bethel." (Genesis 28:10-18)

Back to Bethel:

Coming back to Bethel had a greater significance twenty years later. Jacob was fleeing the wrath of his relatives, again. He was surrounded - his father-in-law on one side and his brother Esau on the other.

Feeling distressed in this tightening vise of converging enemies, Jacob suffered a fitful, but memorable night. He wrestled with the Angel of the Lord who changed his name to Israel – God wrestler. Then, Jacob found deliverance from his dilemma as his father-in-law’s anger was abated and Esau had long forgiven him (Genesis 32).

After his latest family feuds came to a resolution, Jacob’s sons Simeon and Levi slaughtered the house of Shechem to avenge the rape of their sister. (Genesis 34) With a foul reputation in the land and great fear of retribution for the murders, Jacob returned to Bethel:

And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.

Genesis 35:3
(King James Version)

Jacob built an altar to God as he and his house put away their strange gods, cleaned up their act, and got their hearts right with the God of his fathers. (Genesis 35)

Jacob's return to Bethel is read in the first part of the video clip below:



To this day, "Back to Bethel" is a picture of those who come back to God after leaving Him and getting in the world.

Now, fast forward about one thousand years ...

Jacob, whose name had been changed to Israel, had many descendants. They multiplied to become the great kingdom of Israel and came to a zenith under David and Solomon. (II Samuel 2 – 24; I Kings 1-11; I Chronicles 11 – 29; II Chronicles 1–9)

Under Solomon’s son Rehoboam, a bloodless civil war (a revolt over high taxes) broke out led by Jeroboam I. Israel split in two – the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. (I Kings 12 - 13; II Chronicles 10 - 11)

Judah retained Jerusalem as its capital; Israel’s first capital was Bethel (I Kings 12). Here, Jeroboam I erected two golden calves, one in Dan, the other in Bethel. (I Kings 12:28-29)

Remember the problem the children of Israel had with those golden calves when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt and was on the mountain getting the Law? (Exodus 32)

Here is Hollywood's version from The Ten Commandment (1956) :






You would think after all that drama Moses had finished off those golden calves and their worship.

Those golden calves made a big comeback … back at Bethel.

The leader of the rebellion, Jeroboam I had put up the golden calves and instituted his own priests (as the Levites were the ones under the Law of Moses) for political reasons. He did this to keep the people from going back to Jerusalem to worship and getting any ideas about reuniting with the southern kingdom. (I Kings 12:27) This act is often referred to as the sin of Jeroboam (I Kings 13:32-34)

Back to the Bethel? ... Not!

Instead of putting away idols, like the house of Jacob did in Genesis, these children of Israel were putting up idols and worshipping them, from Jeroboam I to Jeroboam II. Instead of coming back to God, like Jacob had done, they were turning their backs on the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Bethel was a place where those, though very religious, were far from God.

During Amos’s time:

When Jeroboam II was on the throne, the northern kingdom was at its zenith. Bethel was the center of culture and of organized religion. Judaism was in apostasy as the worship the golden calf was reinstituted, where Amaziah was the priest at Bethel (Amos 7:10).

The king’s chapel at the king’s court was the center of golden calf worship. (Amos 7:13)

The Message of Amos:

In the northern kingdom, Amos first launches into the sins and God’s judgment of their neighboring kingdoms –Syria, Philistia, Phoenicia, Edom, Ammon, and Moab. (Amos 1:3 – 2:3) The people didn’t mind that, especially hearing about someone else’s sins. And they didn’t seem to mind that much when he started in the sins of the southern kingdom of Judah (Amos 2:4 - 5)

Then, Amos launched into the sins of Israel - Immorality, Blasphemy, Iniquity– past, present, future. (Amos 2:4 – 6:4). They didn’t like it.




The priest at Bethel, Amaziah deliberately misquoted Amos to King Jeroboam to stir up more trouble. (Amos 7:10 - 11) Then, the priest of the golden calf derided Amos and told him to go away. (Amos 7:12 - 13)

At the time, Amos’s warnings of judgment seemed ridiculous as the northern kingdom under Jeroboam II was the zenith of its power (II Kings 14:23 – 27). But fifty years later, the northern kingdom would be destroyed by the Assyrians, carried into captivity about 740 BC. (II Kings 17)

And hence the ten tribes in the north have become known as "the ten lost tribes of Israel."

The Forbidden Book Concealed?

In the time frame of this historical fiction - the late 14th  century - the Bible has been suppressed - especially in the common language of the people. There is a Famine in the land ... a spiritual famine of the Bread of Life ... for many years.

With the pending of the Forbidden Book, will the people long to go back to Bethel?  And if so, which one?

* The Bethel of repenting and turning back to the God? 

* The Bethel of idolatry?

Come and find out.

Whatever course a man or woman chooses in whatever age ....

Even the Dark Ages could not extinguish the Light.

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The site where free sample chapters can be downloaded and where this eBook can be bought and delivered via wireless:

* Amazon.com (for Kindle)

* Barnes and Noble (Nook)



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For previous posts in this series:

Anastasis (part 3) - Famine (2012)

Anastasis (part 2) - standing up (2011)

Anastasis (part 1) - The Forbidden Book Concealed (2011)

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For posts on similar subjects:

Easter - The Sign of the Prophet Jonah (2011)

Memorize this! (2011)

Beverly Hillbillies and Amos - country folk in the big city (2010)

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Photo from Wikipedia Commons: Amos, the prophet