Verse 1:
Early one fine afternoon I went into town,
Never would have guessed what was on the ground,
Sitting by the road all black with char.
I picked it up and put it in my car.
Chorus:
Burnt chicken: It's what's for supper tonight!
Burnt chicken: Yeah, it's a wondrous sight!
Burnt chicken:
Burnt chicken: That's when you know it's cooked right!
Verse 2:
Came up on the campus and what did I see?
People running out of the buildings!
Cooks had gotten just a little carried away.
Guess what we'll be eating this very day!
Verse 3:
A girl in the dorm tried to microwave.
But to her frustration it misbehaved.
Sadly that poor fowl was all she had to eat.
She was not so happy but it really is a treat!
Verse 4:
Went out in the woods for a mens' dorm party.
One of the guys fixed a specialty.
Hours on the grill charring in its own grease.
After they combusted we had a feast!
Verse 5:
Many, many years have passed since then.
I still like to keep a poultry pen.
Cook 'em up, fry 'em up, just a little scorched,
Sit back and eat 'em up on my front porch.
© Daniel Lorimer
August 15, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
8/9/10
This day in history, I was alive.
8/9/10 is a significant day in history. It is a significant day for me, for you, for everyone. Why? Because this is a very unique date that will never happen again as long as we are alive (unless something very strange were to happen). It starts with 8 and increases linearly. Very unique. 8/9/10 - mark it down. Remember it.
Well, you can go ahead and forget it since you probably won't remember it anyway. Besides that, it's almost over. It's one of those once in a lifetime experiences that you might have missed. Maybe you did miss it. I almost did.
But every day is an 8/9/10 in its own way. Each a unique gift from God with unique opportunities, challenges, and experiences. You'll never get to revisit them. It will never come back again. Very unique. Every day - mark it down. Remember it.
8/9/10 is a significant day in history. It is a significant day for me, for you, for everyone. Why? Because this is a very unique date that will never happen again as long as we are alive (unless something very strange were to happen). It starts with 8 and increases linearly. Very unique. 8/9/10 - mark it down. Remember it.
Well, you can go ahead and forget it since you probably won't remember it anyway. Besides that, it's almost over. It's one of those once in a lifetime experiences that you might have missed. Maybe you did miss it. I almost did.
But every day is an 8/9/10 in its own way. Each a unique gift from God with unique opportunities, challenges, and experiences. You'll never get to revisit them. It will never come back again. Very unique. Every day - mark it down. Remember it.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
West 64
I'm ready to take a trip on West 64.
'Cause this life ain't worth living no more.
Without you by my side,
I'm ready to take this ride.
So I'll just take your car and go
East, on West 64.
If you ever miss me, I don't want to know.
You've had your chance, but were too slow.
This is the end.
I won't be back again.
I'm in your car going
East, on West 64.
232 cars have come and gone.
But I'm still right here going strong.
No one can stop me,
Just you wait and see.
I'm in your car going
East, on West 64.
Next time you go driving on West 64.
Maybe you'll stop to love just once more.
I'm one of those crosses -
One of those losses -
I took your car and went
East, on West 64.
© Daniel Lorimer
July 3, 2010
'Cause this life ain't worth living no more.
Without you by my side,
I'm ready to take this ride.
So I'll just take your car and go
East, on West 64.
If you ever miss me, I don't want to know.
You've had your chance, but were too slow.
This is the end.
I won't be back again.
I'm in your car going
East, on West 64.
232 cars have come and gone.
But I'm still right here going strong.
No one can stop me,
Just you wait and see.
I'm in your car going
East, on West 64.
Next time you go driving on West 64.
Maybe you'll stop to love just once more.
I'm one of those crosses -
One of those losses -
I took your car and went
East, on West 64.
© Daniel Lorimer
July 3, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood
Did what she knew she should,
Lived by good principle.
But kids scorned and mocked her
Be-cause of her color,
Made her life miserable.
She went home to mom and dad,
But that's what made life so sad.
They both were working,
Their real job shirking.
They never were there for their child.
They worked all day
Just to repay
All of the debt they'd acquired.
A house and a boat and three cars:
Had to live life like the stars.
That's not what she needed
When she was mistreated.
She needed a mom and a dad.
But they were not home.
She lived on her own;
Left by herself she was sad.
The days dragged on like years.
She lived her life in tears.
She went back to school;
The kids there were cruel.
They laughed and they mocked her again.
Her grades started failing;
Her face started paling.
Her parents were still busy then.
They'd bring her gifts but then go.
Their girl they never did know.
She went through the forest
To grandmother Norris;
She knew that her grandma would care.
She stopped for a rest,
Still quite depressed;
She broke down and cried again there.
Oh, what had her life become?
She'd reached the very bottom.
A wolf came in view,
Said that he knew
All of her struggle and strife.
He said that he'd help her
To make it all better,
Then reached out and gave her a knife.
Her grandmother found her that day,
But by then it was too late!
Her body was lifeless,
Though she had been priceless,
But love she never did know.
Her parents, still busy,
Now made time to be
What they should have been long ago.
If only before today –
It might not have ended this way.
© Daniel Lorimer
May 19, 2010
(Backstage: This is a part of a series of songs that play off of familiar childhood stories, rewritten toward a broader audience with a twist (or rewrite) in the storyline to convey a new message.)
Did what she knew she should,
Lived by good principle.
But kids scorned and mocked her
Be-cause of her color,
Made her life miserable.
She went home to mom and dad,
But that's what made life so sad.
They both were working,
Their real job shirking.
They never were there for their child.
They worked all day
Just to repay
All of the debt they'd acquired.
A house and a boat and three cars:
Had to live life like the stars.
That's not what she needed
When she was mistreated.
She needed a mom and a dad.
But they were not home.
She lived on her own;
Left by herself she was sad.
The days dragged on like years.
She lived her life in tears.
She went back to school;
The kids there were cruel.
They laughed and they mocked her again.
Her grades started failing;
Her face started paling.
Her parents were still busy then.
They'd bring her gifts but then go.
Their girl they never did know.
She went through the forest
To grandmother Norris;
She knew that her grandma would care.
She stopped for a rest,
Still quite depressed;
She broke down and cried again there.
Oh, what had her life become?
She'd reached the very bottom.
A wolf came in view,
Said that he knew
All of her struggle and strife.
He said that he'd help her
To make it all better,
Then reached out and gave her a knife.
Her grandmother found her that day,
But by then it was too late!
Her body was lifeless,
Though she had been priceless,
But love she never did know.
Her parents, still busy,
Now made time to be
What they should have been long ago.
If only before today –
It might not have ended this way.
© Daniel Lorimer
May 19, 2010
(Backstage: This is a part of a series of songs that play off of familiar childhood stories, rewritten toward a broader audience with a twist (or rewrite) in the storyline to convey a new message.)
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Ever Been Lied to?
I've been reading a book entitled "American Education" by Joel Spring. I recently was struck by comments he made about the treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II. He asks the question, “Why were Japanese Americans interned in concentration camps but not the descendants of other U.S. enemies, such as German and Italian Americans?”(1) He then goes on to explain that it was because of racial prejudice.
Ah, yes. The Japanese internments during WWII. I've heard about that. I'm sure most people read about it in school. In fact, this is the truth that we've been taught in schools for years. Tens of thousands of Japanese were sent to detention camps, many of very poor quality, resulting in many Japanese Americans dying in those camps during the war.(2) This is the story we've been told, and apparently, we're sticking to it.
But, have you ever stopped to question what you've been told? Just how much of it is true?
I asked this question when I read Spring's statements because not too many weeks prior, I read a news article that the Texas Board of Education passed an amendment to their curriculum to include information about the internment of German and Italian Americans during WWII as well as Japanese internment.(3) This curriculum change would indicate that the major reason for internment was war-time activity, not so much racial prejudice as Spring claims.
On the opposite side, the Texas Board ruling has drawn flak claiming that they are twisting history to fit their own views.(4) So I asked the question, who's twisting history?
Huge numbers of Japanese Americans were relocated during World War II. This relocation effort started after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Through the extent of the war, about 110 thousand Japanese were relocated.(5)
Also during the war were intern camps that housed German and Italian Americans. Though the numbers were not as high for these other nationalities, their numbers were still significant. About fifteen thousand German and Italians were interned during the course of the war.(6) Not all of those held in intern camps had been in the United States. Some were from Latin America. However, these intern camps were not dedicated to only Japanese, they were shared by descendants of the enemy Axis powers.(7) We even have stories of Germans and Italians who were interned during the war.(8) It is obvious that the treatment of the Japanese in America during World War II was not limited to the Japanese. One article also points out the difference between the Japanese that were relocated and those who were actually placed in intern camps (which were different). According to that estimate, the number of Japanese who were actually interned was much closer to the number of Germans, even though many more Japanese were relocated.(9)
Even so, it may do us good to take a look at the numbers for the Japanese and some of the reasons that they were relocated or interned.
Numbers can lie, and we don't want to fall into that trap. Wes Injerd has done extensive study regarding the Japanese Americans during World War II. He gives details regarding the figures of Japanese who were relocated. Many Japanese Americans were not relocated at all. Of the 110 thousand relocated, seventy-two thousand were U.S. citizens and over half of the citizens were minors. The significance here is that many children who were U.S. citizens had parents who were first-generation immigrants (and thus would be more likely to be connected with Japan). Also, around thirteen thousand of the Japanese Americans joined the military, thousands of others were not at the relocation camps very much either because of seasonal leave for work, and other gone to colleges and universities.(10)
Several other things may be interesting to note in discerning the racial discrimination against the Japanese. If the discrimination were again Asians or Orientals in general, why were Japanese the only Asian nationality treated as they were during the war? Other nationalities, like Chinese (China was an ally) served alongside other Americans in the military and other functions and were not forced to relocate or placed in intern camps.
Injerd points out that many of the Japanese relocated willingly or volunteered to relocate, that there were no escape attempts from the relocation camps (he also confirms the distinction between the relocation camps that were very lenient and housed most Japanese, and the internment camps that were more like prison camps for people who had been arrested for various reasons), that the living conditions, though poor, were similar to or better than what many of them had before.(11)
Also, as I've already pointed out, and as Injern emphasizes in his work, Japanese relocation came as a result (or immediate effect) of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese had invaded U.S. soil and there was a lot of legitimate fear that they would try to invade the west coast. And why fear Japanese Americans? For one, there were several Japanese organizations and clubs in the west coast area that were very anti-U.S (and would thus pose a security threat).(12) The truth is, there were loyalists among all of the Axis nationalities in the Unites States. The sad part of any war is that many who are innocent will suffer with the guilty.
Was there racism? Yes. Racism is always a problem. There were Americans of many nationalities (even Japanese) that were prejudiced against the Japanese. But was racism the cause of the massive Japanese relocation during World War II? After my research, I don't think so. Excuse me, Mr. Spring, but I think you need to do a little more research before making statements that are false. When I study, I would like to be studying the truth.
So what do you think? Do you believe the stories of extreme racism that prompted the relocation of so many Japanese Americans during the war? Or might it have been mostly an attempt to protect ourselves against all of our enemy nations?
Who's lying to who? Who are the ones trying to contort history?
References
(1) Spring, Joel. (2008). American Education (13th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
(2) Kareem, Nandra. (2010, March 18). Texas Board of Education's Controversial New Curriculum. Retrieved May 4, 2010, from http://racerelations.about.com/b/2010/03/18/texas-board-of-educations-controversial-new-curriculum.htm
(3) New York Times. (2010, March 12). Texas Conservatives Win Curriculum Change. Retrieved May 4, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.html
(4) Kareem, 2010; New York Times, 2010.
(5) Truman Library. (n.d.). The War Relocation Authority and The Incarceration of Japanese-Americans During World War II. Retrieved May 4, 2010, from http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/japanese_internment/1943.htm
(6) Everything2.com. (2001, September 7). German Internment Camps in World War II. Retrieved May 4, 2010, from http://everything2.com/title/German+Internment+Camps+in+World+War+II
(7) Brosveen, Emily. (n.d.). WORLD WAR II INTERNMENT CAMPS. Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved May 4, 2010, from http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/WW/quwby.html
(8) Davies, David. (n.d.). Germans Interned in Texas during WWII. Texas Public Radio. Retrieved May 4, 2010, from http://www.tpr.org/news/2009/01/news0901141.html ; Kerr, K. (2009, September 20). Italian-Americans Imprisoned: The Internment of Italian-Americans during World War II. Retrieved May 4, 2010, from http://modern-us-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/betrayed_by_america
(9) Everything2.com.
(10) Injerd, Wes. (n.d.). The Preservation of a People: A Look at the Evacuation and Relocation of the People of Japanese Ancestry in the United States during World War II. Retrieved May 4, 2010, from http://home.comcast.net/~eo9066/Intro.html
(11) Injerd, Wes. (n.d.).
(12) Injerd, Wes. (n.d.).
Ah, yes. The Japanese internments during WWII. I've heard about that. I'm sure most people read about it in school. In fact, this is the truth that we've been taught in schools for years. Tens of thousands of Japanese were sent to detention camps, many of very poor quality, resulting in many Japanese Americans dying in those camps during the war.(2) This is the story we've been told, and apparently, we're sticking to it.
But, have you ever stopped to question what you've been told? Just how much of it is true?
I asked this question when I read Spring's statements because not too many weeks prior, I read a news article that the Texas Board of Education passed an amendment to their curriculum to include information about the internment of German and Italian Americans during WWII as well as Japanese internment.(3) This curriculum change would indicate that the major reason for internment was war-time activity, not so much racial prejudice as Spring claims.
On the opposite side, the Texas Board ruling has drawn flak claiming that they are twisting history to fit their own views.(4) So I asked the question, who's twisting history?
Huge numbers of Japanese Americans were relocated during World War II. This relocation effort started after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Through the extent of the war, about 110 thousand Japanese were relocated.(5)
Also during the war were intern camps that housed German and Italian Americans. Though the numbers were not as high for these other nationalities, their numbers were still significant. About fifteen thousand German and Italians were interned during the course of the war.(6) Not all of those held in intern camps had been in the United States. Some were from Latin America. However, these intern camps were not dedicated to only Japanese, they were shared by descendants of the enemy Axis powers.(7) We even have stories of Germans and Italians who were interned during the war.(8) It is obvious that the treatment of the Japanese in America during World War II was not limited to the Japanese. One article also points out the difference between the Japanese that were relocated and those who were actually placed in intern camps (which were different). According to that estimate, the number of Japanese who were actually interned was much closer to the number of Germans, even though many more Japanese were relocated.(9)
Even so, it may do us good to take a look at the numbers for the Japanese and some of the reasons that they were relocated or interned.
Numbers can lie, and we don't want to fall into that trap. Wes Injerd has done extensive study regarding the Japanese Americans during World War II. He gives details regarding the figures of Japanese who were relocated. Many Japanese Americans were not relocated at all. Of the 110 thousand relocated, seventy-two thousand were U.S. citizens and over half of the citizens were minors. The significance here is that many children who were U.S. citizens had parents who were first-generation immigrants (and thus would be more likely to be connected with Japan). Also, around thirteen thousand of the Japanese Americans joined the military, thousands of others were not at the relocation camps very much either because of seasonal leave for work, and other gone to colleges and universities.(10)
Several other things may be interesting to note in discerning the racial discrimination against the Japanese. If the discrimination were again Asians or Orientals in general, why were Japanese the only Asian nationality treated as they were during the war? Other nationalities, like Chinese (China was an ally) served alongside other Americans in the military and other functions and were not forced to relocate or placed in intern camps.
Injerd points out that many of the Japanese relocated willingly or volunteered to relocate, that there were no escape attempts from the relocation camps (he also confirms the distinction between the relocation camps that were very lenient and housed most Japanese, and the internment camps that were more like prison camps for people who had been arrested for various reasons), that the living conditions, though poor, were similar to or better than what many of them had before.(11)
Also, as I've already pointed out, and as Injern emphasizes in his work, Japanese relocation came as a result (or immediate effect) of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese had invaded U.S. soil and there was a lot of legitimate fear that they would try to invade the west coast. And why fear Japanese Americans? For one, there were several Japanese organizations and clubs in the west coast area that were very anti-U.S (and would thus pose a security threat).(12) The truth is, there were loyalists among all of the Axis nationalities in the Unites States. The sad part of any war is that many who are innocent will suffer with the guilty.
Was there racism? Yes. Racism is always a problem. There were Americans of many nationalities (even Japanese) that were prejudiced against the Japanese. But was racism the cause of the massive Japanese relocation during World War II? After my research, I don't think so. Excuse me, Mr. Spring, but I think you need to do a little more research before making statements that are false. When I study, I would like to be studying the truth.
So what do you think? Do you believe the stories of extreme racism that prompted the relocation of so many Japanese Americans during the war? Or might it have been mostly an attempt to protect ourselves against all of our enemy nations?
Who's lying to who? Who are the ones trying to contort history?
References
(1) Spring, Joel. (2008). American Education (13th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
(2) Kareem, Nandra. (2010, March 18). Texas Board of Education's Controversial New Curriculum. Retrieved May 4, 2010, from http://racerelations.about
(3) New York Times. (2010, March 12). Texas Conservatives Win Curriculum Change. Retrieved May 4, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/201
(4) Kareem, 2010; New York Times, 2010.
(5) Truman Library. (n.d.). The War Relocation Authority and The Incarceration of Japanese-Americans During World War II. Retrieved May 4, 2010, from http://www.trumanlibrary.o
(6) Everything2.com. (2001, September 7). German Internment Camps in World War II. Retrieved May 4, 2010, from http://everything2.com/tit
(7) Brosveen, Emily. (n.d.). WORLD WAR II INTERNMENT CAMPS. Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved May 4, 2010, from http://www.tshaonline.org/
(8) Davies, David. (n.d.). Germans Interned in Texas during WWII. Texas Public Radio. Retrieved May 4, 2010, from http://www.tpr.org/news/20
(9) Everything2.com.
(10) Injerd, Wes. (n.d.). The Preservation of a People: A Look at the Evacuation and Relocation of the People of Japanese Ancestry in the United States during World War II. Retrieved May 4, 2010, from http://home.comcast.net/~e
(11) Injerd, Wes. (n.d.).
(12) Injerd, Wes. (n.d.).
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Birthday Song
In the days leading up to my birthday, I was thinking about John Paul Stevens and his recent news that he is retiring from the supreme court. That may not matter as much to others, but you see, Justice Stevens and I have something in common. We share the same date of birth.
That got me thinking about others born on my birthday:
There were many, and had different paths and different routes, some were kings, composers, politicians, actors, sport stars....
571 - Muhammad, (traditional date) Prophet and founder of Islam
1494 - Johannes Agricola, German Protestant reformer
1718 - David Brainerd
1889 - Adolf Hitler
1920 - John Paul Stevens, as I mentioned, retiring from Supreme Court - 2nd oldest Supreme Court Justice
1972 - Carmen Electra
1936 - Pat Roberts
But I wasn't just thinking about people born on my birthday, for many also died on the day that I was born:
1314 - Pope Clement V, Bertrand Got, pope (1305-14) move papacy to Avignon, dies
1759 - George Friedrich Handel, buried in Westminster Abbey (died 6 days before)
1769 - Pontiac, indian chief of the Ottawa, murdered
1812 - George Clinton, 4th U.S. Vice President, dies at 73 1st Vice President to die in office
1906 - Australian wombat; oldest known marsupial, dies in London Zoo at 26
1947 - Christian X, king of Denmark (1912-47), dies at 76
1999 - Cassie Bernall, Rachel Joy Scott, many others, Columbine High School massacre
2010 - Today, it is estimated that over 100 thousand children will be denied the opportunity of having a birthday. 3,700 of those in the United States alone.
But not only have their been births and deaths - there have been many notable events on my birthday as well:
295 - 8th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
1770 - Captain Cook arrives in New South Wales
1775 - British begin siege of Boston (Revolutionary War)
1792 - France declares war on Austria, the beginning of French Revolutionary Wars.
1777 - New York adopts new constitution as an independent state
1799 - Napoleon issues a decree calling for establishing Jerusalem for Jews
1853 - Harriet Tubman starts Underground Railroad
1861 - Colonel Robert E. Lee resigns from Union army
1879 - 1st mobile home (horse drawn) used in a journey from London and Cyprus
1902 - Marie and Pierre Curie isolate radioactive element radium
1904 - Louisiana Purchase Exposition opens in St. Louis (1904 World's Fair)
1910 - Halley's Comet passes 29th recorded perihelion at 87.9 million km
1916 - German-British sea battle off Belgian coast
1918 - Manfred von Richthofen, The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th + 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day.
1920 - Tornadoes kill 219 in Alabama and Mississippi
1920 - 7th modern Olympic games opens in Antwerp Belgium
1936 - Jews repel an Arab attack in Petach Tikvah Palestine
1941 - 100 German bombers attack Athens
1944 - NFL legalizes coaching from bench
1945 - Soviet troops enter Berlin
1947 - Frederik IX becomes king of Denmark
1961 - Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed troops against Cuba.
1963 - All Africa Conferences of Churches opens in Kampala Uganda
1967 - U.S. planes bomb Haiphong for 1st time during Vietnam War
1970 - Bruno Kreisky becomes 1st socialist chancellor of Austria
1971 - U.S. Supreme Court upholds use of busing to achieve racial desegregation
1972 - Apollo 16 landed on the moon commanded by John Young.
1976 - George Harrison sings lumberjack song with Monty Python
1978 - Korean Airlines flight 902 shot down by Soviets in Russian airspace
1983 - President Reagan signs a $165B bail out for Social Security
1986 - U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1986 - Michael Jordan sets all-time record for points in NBA playoff game with 63 against Boston Celtics
1988 - Baltimore Orioles set worst record to start a season 0-14 (will go 0-21)
1992 - Madonna signs $60-million deal with Time Warner
1993 - Uranus passes Neptune (once every 171 years)
1994 - Serbian army bombs hospital in Goradze Bosnia, 47 killed
1996 - Chicago Bulls win record 72 games in a season
1999 - Columbine High School massacre
2007 - Johnson Space Center Shooting
Sources:
http://www.abortionno.org/Resources/fastfacts.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_20
http://www.brainyhistory.com/daysbirth/birth_april_20.html
All of these wonderings led to the Birthday Song:
Birthday Song
Everybody's singing that “Happy Birthday” song.
One day in the year that nothing can go wrong.
Everybody knows you so you need not sing along.
It's the time of year when you feel like you be-long.
Chorus:
Happy Birth-day, It's a great day.
Happy Birth-day, In a new way.
Happy Birth-day!
But not everybody's birthday is a time that they rejoice.
They feel they've been shortchanged in their life's grand invoice.
They look back at all the years wasted by their choice.
And we hear the lingering sorrow wafting in their voice.
But God can make a birthday something greater than the past.
A day of new beginnings; horizons that are vast.
As we pummel through the years moving very fast.
God can turn your day of birth into a life that will last!
So don't look back on your birth day and wish that you had died.
Don't accept a life that takes you on a constant downhill slide.
Look to Christ who will redeem from without and from inside.
Make your Birthday a reminder of your God in whom you abide.
© Daniel Lorimer
April 20, 2010
That got me thinking about others born on my birthday:
There were many, and had different paths and different routes, some were kings, composers, politicians, actors, sport stars....
571 - Muhammad, (traditional date) Prophet and founder of Islam
1494 - Johannes Agricola, German Protestant reformer
1718 - David Brainerd
1889 - Adolf Hitler
1920 - John Paul Stevens, as I mentioned, retiring from Supreme Court - 2nd oldest Supreme Court Justice
1972 - Carmen Electra
1936 - Pat Roberts
But I wasn't just thinking about people born on my birthday, for many also died on the day that I was born:
1314 - Pope Clement V, Bertrand Got, pope (1305-14) move papacy to Avignon, dies
1759 - George Friedrich Handel, buried in Westminster Abbey (died 6 days before)
1769 - Pontiac, indian chief of the Ottawa, murdered
1812 - George Clinton, 4th U.S. Vice President, dies at 73 1st Vice President to die in office
1906 - Australian wombat; oldest known marsupial, dies in London Zoo at 26
1947 - Christian X, king of Denmark (1912-47), dies at 76
1999 - Cassie Bernall, Rachel Joy Scott, many others, Columbine High School massacre
2010 - Today, it is estimated that over 100 thousand children will be denied the opportunity of having a birthday. 3,700 of those in the United States alone.
But not only have their been births and deaths - there have been many notable events on my birthday as well:
295 - 8th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
1770 - Captain Cook arrives in New South Wales
1775 - British begin siege of Boston (Revolutionary War)
1792 - France declares war on Austria, the beginning of French Revolutionary Wars.
1777 - New York adopts new constitution as an independent state
1799 - Napoleon issues a decree calling for establishing Jerusalem for Jews
1853 - Harriet Tubman starts Underground Railroad
1861 - Colonel Robert E. Lee resigns from Union army
1879 - 1st mobile home (horse drawn) used in a journey from London and Cyprus
1902 - Marie and Pierre Curie isolate radioactive element radium
1904 - Louisiana Purchase Exposition opens in St. Louis (1904 World's Fair)
1910 - Halley's Comet passes 29th recorded perihelion at 87.9 million km
1916 - German-British sea battle off Belgian coast
1918 - Manfred von Richthofen, The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th + 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day.
1920 - Tornadoes kill 219 in Alabama and Mississippi
1920 - 7th modern Olympic games opens in Antwerp Belgium
1936 - Jews repel an Arab attack in Petach Tikvah Palestine
1941 - 100 German bombers attack Athens
1944 - NFL legalizes coaching from bench
1945 - Soviet troops enter Berlin
1947 - Frederik IX becomes king of Denmark
1961 - Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed troops against Cuba.
1963 - All Africa Conferences of Churches opens in Kampala Uganda
1967 - U.S. planes bomb Haiphong for 1st time during Vietnam War
1970 - Bruno Kreisky becomes 1st socialist chancellor of Austria
1971 - U.S. Supreme Court upholds use of busing to achieve racial desegregation
1972 - Apollo 16 landed on the moon commanded by John Young.
1976 - George Harrison sings lumberjack song with Monty Python
1978 - Korean Airlines flight 902 shot down by Soviets in Russian airspace
1983 - President Reagan signs a $165B bail out for Social Security
1986 - U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1986 - Michael Jordan sets all-time record for points in NBA playoff game with 63 against Boston Celtics
1988 - Baltimore Orioles set worst record to start a season 0-14 (will go 0-21)
1992 - Madonna signs $60-million deal with Time Warner
1993 - Uranus passes Neptune (once every 171 years)
1994 - Serbian army bombs hospital in Goradze Bosnia, 47 killed
1996 - Chicago Bulls win record 72 games in a season
1999 - Columbine High School massacre
2007 - Johnson Space Center Shooting
Sources:
http://www.abortionno.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wi
http://www.brainyhistory.c
All of these wonderings led to the Birthday Song:
Birthday Song
Everybody's singing that “Happy Birthday” song.
One day in the year that nothing can go wrong.
Everybody knows you so you need not sing along.
It's the time of year when you feel like you be-long.
Chorus:
Happy Birth-day, It's a great day.
Happy Birth-day, In a new way.
Happy Birth-day!
But not everybody's birthday is a time that they rejoice.
They feel they've been shortchanged in their life's grand invoice.
They look back at all the years wasted by their choice.
And we hear the lingering sorrow wafting in their voice.
But God can make a birthday something greater than the past.
A day of new beginnings; horizons that are vast.
As we pummel through the years moving very fast.
God can turn your day of birth into a life that will last!
So don't look back on your birth day and wish that you had died.
Don't accept a life that takes you on a constant downhill slide.
Look to Christ who will redeem from without and from inside.
Make your Birthday a reminder of your God in whom you abide.
© Daniel Lorimer
April 20, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
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