Mars rover 'Curiosity' caught some amazing images while roving the planet Mars in 2012. (4 UFO's) Which continues to be unexplained by NASA officials.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Carroll's Journal 44 (The Conversation)
I finally made that call to that publisher, the one I mentioned who emailed me while I was on my little vacation trip. She and I had a very interesting conversation. I already knew somewhat in advance (through email) what we were going to pretty much talk about so I asked her if I could put her on speaker phone and record it, in so that I could post our conversation on.my blog. Obviously, she wished to remain anonymous, and I completely agreed. Anyhow, here is the conversation.
Her: Thank you so much for calling, Carroll. I have so many questions for you, I don’t know where to start.
Me: No problem. No problem at all. What can I do for you?
Her: First let me say that I am sorry about what happened to you. It has caused a lot of us publishers and authors a great deal of concern.
Me: How so?
Her: You were a very popular author on Goodreads, and very active considering the short time you were a member there. You had quite the following of friends and fans, and your group grew to over 400 members. I have seen other author groups, mostly those Q & A groups, who were lucky if they had 100 members in them
Me: Yeah, I did have a lot of friends, didn’t I?
Her: Yes you did. I always enjoyed coming online and checking out your group and seeing what you were up to. The thing that set you apart, in my eyes, and in many other publishers eyes who knew of you on Goodreads, was that you also write songs. But for me, I couldn’t believe the amount of poetry you posted. It was unbelievable. In fact, the day I discovered you were banned, my first thought was of your poetry. All the time and work it took for you to post it and then in one swoop, gone. All of it was gone.
Me: Yeah, it boggled my mind for a few minutes too. (Laughter)
Her: Well, this is why I wanted to talk to you. Why did Patrick do that so quickly? I first thought that you must have done something extremely awful for him to just go in there in wipe out everything that you contributed.
Me: I don’t know why he did that. You would have to ask him. Don’t hold your breath for an answer though, I don’t think he even knows why he did it. I think he is just a weak person that was swayed by the mob. Maybe intimidated.
Her: I read your journal, did an insider really tell you that it might have been because he thought you were a part of STGRB?
Me: From what I can gather.
Her: Was what you said in your journal true? You really don’t have any affiliations with them at all?
Me: Nope. None. Never did.
Her: Didn’t he question you about it before he banned you?
Me: Nope. He never contacted me at all at any point.
Her: So he just banned you for basically no reason?
Me: That’s about the best I can come up with. Why?
Her: That is very concerning. Not just for me on behalf of our authors, but for other publishers I have been talking to about your situation, and their authors. We all share the same concerns. If it could happen to you then it could happen to any of our authors too. Let me ask you this, have you ever paid for advertisement or anything on Goodreads?
Me: No. I thought about it going into this year. It was something my then manager and I discussed often. I think he was all for it, but I was holding out some reservations.
Her: Why? What were your reservations?
Me: About the fact that after a lot of research, I discovered that goodreads treats authors like second class citizens, except for when it came to the money. Oh, they will take your money. This is what bothered me. Why would I want to invest my money into a website for advertisement or an author profile upgrade that treats me like a second class citizen? If you look closely, you will see, that website is all about the reader 100 percent, yet it’s the publishers and authors who pay for advertisements and author upgrades and such, and it is those people who actually keep that website going. It’s a little counter-productive if you ask me.
Her: That’s exactly my concerns too. And other publishers, and our authors. That we invest into the Goodreads website like that, time and money, but what’s to say that what happened to you won’t happen to our authors? Then everything we invested our time and money into could just be wiped out in a moment without warning, notice or inquiry.
Me: Exactly.
Her: I was there that day when all of this broke out, watching and reading all those posts. I was close to horrified. I kept thinking, Goodreads will step in and stop these people. But they never did.
Me: I covered that in my last journal. Which is why I question the credibility of a website that doesn’t enforce their TOS, and endorses bullies.
Her: I read that. That’s the irony of why I contacted you. Me and other publishers have been talking behind the scenes about how easy it was for you to be removed and none of us think you did anything to deserve it. It causes us to start thinking about our authors who are members of that website and how easy could it happen to them.
Me: Evidently, pretty easy.
Her: This all started because of that girl? Because I know your blog post had nothing to do with the onslaught you received. Most of the comments made that day circled around you and that girl.
Me: My thoughts as well. Apparently, my personal life is of great concern to everybody.
Her: So she was the person behind the attack on you?
Me: Oh yes, she organized the whole thing.
Her: I know her. I am in her group. I would have never believed she would be capable of something like that. And there lies my fear for my authors. I have already advised them to try and avoid any contact with her, and her friends. Obviously, the people she is associated with are the people who attacked you, and I don’t want my authors getting involved with people like that. The other publishers I have spoken with have advised their authors the same thing. Following this story as best I can and following your blog posts, I have long figured out that she is bad news.
Me: Go figure, right?
Her: Which kind of leads me to another point of interest. Do you think it could be possible for you to tell me the whole story behind everything? I really want to be able to educate my authors in hopes they don’t find themselves being targeted by this girl or these people. What set her off? Things like that. In your last journal you mentioned that you were thinking about posting the whole story. Are you really going to do that? Have you decided yet?
Me: I haven’t decided yet. My lawyer and I are still discussing my options.
Her: So a lawsuit is still a possibility?
Me: Yeah, but the thing is, it will cost me a lot of money to go after Goodreads, Patrick Brown and a few select others in court, and no matter how air tight you think your case might be, it is still a 50/50 shot that you win. That goes for anything in life just about. You never know how a jury or judge will see things. I am trying to decide if the risk is worth the reward.
Her: I see. Well listen, do you think it is possible that you could send me that story regardless of whether or not you post it on your blog? I would really like to learn about the hows and whys this happened to you. I would like to pass that information along to my authors and to my publisher friends and their authors.
Me: Kind of like a learning tool?
Her: Yes. I think it would be very helpful.
Me: Sure. I don’t see why not. It would be nice to have something good come from this mess.
Her: I would appreciate it. And if it’s not too much trouble, I already put together a list of people who involved themselves in this situation from your recent post, The List 2. I have seen those fake ratings and reviews. I have passed it around to my authors and other publishers on Goodreads and their authors of people our authors should avoid. Everyone who has posted a negative rating or review or comment are on that list. I was wondering when you were going to get around to talking about that on your blog. The more people we can name, the more people our authors can avoid to better prevent them from getting caught up in something like this. Since it doesn’t seem like that Patrick or Goodreads have our authors best interests in mind, we have to kind of fend for them, you know?
Me: My sentiments exactly. And you are right, if anybody wants to know who to avoid on Goodreads or wants to know who the bullies are, all they have to do is go to my book reviews and there you will find them. They left a pretty big trail. Or you could go to a group on Goodreads called “Authors behaving Badly“ and check out the members. That might give you a good idea also. Maybe they should rename it “The Bullies of Goodeads“.(Laughter) You want names of blogs with that as well?
Her: Sure. That would be fantastic. Thank you. Thank you very much. I heard of that group. Maybe send me a link?
Me: No problem. Like I said, maybe something good can come from all of this after all. It’s a private group, but I’m pretty sure if you send a request and mention how much you hate me, they would probably accept you. (Laughter)
Her: That’s too bad. Now you can’t see what they are saying about you.
Me: Oh, I know what they’re saying. I have a few spies in the house. I have screen shots. Plenty of screen shots.
Her: Really? Do you plan on posting them anytime soon?
Me: Eventually. Maybe. It seems that these people are all about proof and evidence. Instead of accusing them of stuff, I will just post what they are doing and let the facts speak for themselves about who the real bullies are. (Laughter)
Her: You are sneaky, aren’t you?
Me: Pretty much. When I have to be. I get everybody to look at my right hand while I do things with my left. I think it’ll be an interesting post once I am ready to post it.
Her: When do you think that will be?
Me: Haven’t decided yet.
Her: The thing I notice is that you only post what these people post on other sites, blogs and what not, then they get really angry with you about it. I don’t get it.
Me: It’s a conundrum, isn’t it?
Her: I still can’t believe that Patrick just deleted all those poems you posted without at least getting a hold of you first and getting your side. I can’t believe he let those people attack you like that and none of them got banned.
Me: Well, like somebody once said in a comment on one of my blog posts, the man is a minimum wage internet babysitter, how professional did you expect him to be? (Laughter)
Her: (Laughter) Oh my God, I saw that comment. That was hilarious. Still, it throws a deep concern into many authors and publishers that Godreads would allow such a thing to occur and then ban an author like that for no reason other than personal. It also throws up a red flag about investing into advertisements and everything. I really saw an ugly side of Goodreads, and many of its members through your experience and I am not the only one. There are a lot of publishers on Goodreads, and editors and authors who saw what happened to you and they fear that they could be targeted next by these people.
Me: I have an easy solution to that.
Her: You do? What?
Me: Kiss their asses. (Laughter) That’s what they want you to do and if you don’t, then they target you. So, just kiss their asses if you can live with yourself about it.
Her: You didn’t kiss their ass.
Me: And you saw what happened, right? But you do have a real concern there. They did say I was the flavor of the week and that next month I would be forgotten and they would move on to the next author. So … yeah, I would say you and all your authors have a real deep concern.
Her: I read that too. That was what actually got me to thinking and to start communicating with other publishers about the situation. Thanks for talking with me. I really appreciate it. And thanks for when you send me that story and that list. I hope it’s not putting you out too much.
Me: Not at all. It might be a few weeks or so, but I will try and get it to you as soon as I can. I’ll even send you some screen shots of their group and stuff. In return, do I have your permission to post this conversation on my blog?
Her: Just don’t use any names. I saw how those people went after your friend on her blog, and how Goodreads and Patrick Brown punished anybody who tried to defend you.
Me: Not a problem. I won’t mention any names. Not that it would make a difference for them. They just hate for the sake of hate. They seem to think it’s okay for them to trash authors and or their books, but when authors speak out against them, they get all bitchy and bully. Not that I approve of authors getting upset over unfavorable reviews, I have always maintained that readers have every right to their opinion. But what I did had absolutely nothing to do with reviews, it was about a small select of individuals who broke their promise to me. I guess they can’t handle the truth about themselves. Or being “reviewed” unfavorably in return. They can dish it out, but they just can’t take it. For some reason, they think when they come to you and offer their service in exchange for your work for free that if they don’t own up to their end of the deal that it’s not stealing.
Her: But that is stealing. That's what stealing means.
Me: You know that. I know that. My five year old nephew knows that. Anybody with half a brain knows that. Unfortunately, they don’t know that. It’s kind of like a shop-lifter who steals a pack of gum. When they get caught they are like, “That’s not stealing, it’s just gum.” (Laughter) No, dumb-ass, it’s stealing. Then they hate you for calling them on it.
Her: They do seem to have plenty of hate in them, I‘ll give them that. Thanks again, Carroll. Maybe we can talk later sometime? Keep emailing?
Me: Sure. And here I thought you were going to offer me a deal or something to publish my books. (Laughter)
Her: I read already where you enjoy being Indie too much.
Me: I do like being Indie, that’s for sure.
er: Yeah, that’s what I thought. I told you I follow your blog. You might be surprised at how many publishers follow you. I talk to a few a week sometimes and your name almost always comes up. You have a lot of supporters. More than what you might think.
Me: That’s good to know. Thanks.
Her: Okay, well, I’ll let you go now. Thanks again for everything.
Me: No problem. Take care. Maybe we’ll talk again soon.
Her: Sounds good. Goodbye.
Me: Goodbye.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You know, I just got done watching one of my favorite movies today. It’s called, “A League Of Their Own”. Everybody knows it’s a story about the first women’s professional baseball league, but it’s also a story about friendship and lasting fond memories. I see it as a story about time. How time passes more quickly than we think. With that passing of time, comes what we leave behind as human beings. What we leave for the next generation, and what we teach them. Thinking about that - and this situation - I ask myself, “What are we teaching the young?” - Apparently, we are teaching them that it’s okay to bully online. That it’s okay to put ourselves into other people’s business. Or to harass them. Or to try and stomp out somebody’s dream. Somebody we don’t even know and has done nothing to us. To be honest, I am astounded by how many people there are that are so full of hate, jealousy and resentment. It absolutely amazes me. I mean, these people are just consumed by hatred. It really does boggle the mind.
There only about five people who should have a problem with my “List” of bad bloggers (And that's the people who were on it). Everybody else who has chosen to involve themselves have chosen to teach our younger people how to bully and how to hate. How to try and silence someone when we don’t agree with their opinion. People will do this online because it is easier to do than if it had to be done in real life or face to face. This is the world that was created with the invention of the internet. A safe haven for bullies and haters to get away with saying and doing things under the guise of mostly, the famous “anon”. The internet has created many keyboard ‘tough’ guys and gals. Courage comes now days in the form of a key stroke.
But I don’t just lay blame on these people. It makes it easier to do these (and say these) horrible things to others (of whom we do not know) when people in charge (Patrick Brown and the rest of the GR staff) allows it. Endorses it. This episode has cheapened the value of Goodreads and its members. And I hold Patrick responsible for that. The bottom line is still the same, nobody wins. Not even the young people of whom it is our responsibility as adults to teach properly on how to handle situations. Everyone who has made the decision to throw themselves into this mess has taught their children how to hate. That is the saddest result of all.
If someone is always trying to find the worst in you, it's because they can't find the best in themselves.
*** To the person who earlier in my comment section, issued a "final warning" - Get a life. A non-keyboard, internet life. Find something constructive to do with your time. Do something that will make mom and dad proud of you. I bet they haven't been proud of you since that time you rode the little yellow bus all by yourself for the first time. Oh, and try and refrain yourself from stalking me. I know I am lovable, but you need to get a grip on reality. You and I - it's not gonna happen. I know you hate to love me and love to hate me, but you really should think about getting outside once in a while. Breathe in some fresh air. You know, stuff like that. Think about it anyway. Maybe give it a try. And if you're not going to listen to my advice then at elast when you comment, do so under your real name. Stop neing a coward. For a bunch of bullies, you sure are cowards about it. ***
Her: Thank you so much for calling, Carroll. I have so many questions for you, I don’t know where to start.
Me: No problem. No problem at all. What can I do for you?
Her: First let me say that I am sorry about what happened to you. It has caused a lot of us publishers and authors a great deal of concern.
Me: How so?
Her: You were a very popular author on Goodreads, and very active considering the short time you were a member there. You had quite the following of friends and fans, and your group grew to over 400 members. I have seen other author groups, mostly those Q & A groups, who were lucky if they had 100 members in them
Me: Yeah, I did have a lot of friends, didn’t I?
Her: Yes you did. I always enjoyed coming online and checking out your group and seeing what you were up to. The thing that set you apart, in my eyes, and in many other publishers eyes who knew of you on Goodreads, was that you also write songs. But for me, I couldn’t believe the amount of poetry you posted. It was unbelievable. In fact, the day I discovered you were banned, my first thought was of your poetry. All the time and work it took for you to post it and then in one swoop, gone. All of it was gone.
Me: Yeah, it boggled my mind for a few minutes too. (Laughter)
Her: Well, this is why I wanted to talk to you. Why did Patrick do that so quickly? I first thought that you must have done something extremely awful for him to just go in there in wipe out everything that you contributed.
Me: I don’t know why he did that. You would have to ask him. Don’t hold your breath for an answer though, I don’t think he even knows why he did it. I think he is just a weak person that was swayed by the mob. Maybe intimidated.
Her: I read your journal, did an insider really tell you that it might have been because he thought you were a part of STGRB?
Me: From what I can gather.
Her: Was what you said in your journal true? You really don’t have any affiliations with them at all?
Me: Nope. None. Never did.
Her: Didn’t he question you about it before he banned you?
Me: Nope. He never contacted me at all at any point.
Her: So he just banned you for basically no reason?
Me: That’s about the best I can come up with. Why?
Her: That is very concerning. Not just for me on behalf of our authors, but for other publishers I have been talking to about your situation, and their authors. We all share the same concerns. If it could happen to you then it could happen to any of our authors too. Let me ask you this, have you ever paid for advertisement or anything on Goodreads?
Me: No. I thought about it going into this year. It was something my then manager and I discussed often. I think he was all for it, but I was holding out some reservations.
Her: Why? What were your reservations?
Me: About the fact that after a lot of research, I discovered that goodreads treats authors like second class citizens, except for when it came to the money. Oh, they will take your money. This is what bothered me. Why would I want to invest my money into a website for advertisement or an author profile upgrade that treats me like a second class citizen? If you look closely, you will see, that website is all about the reader 100 percent, yet it’s the publishers and authors who pay for advertisements and author upgrades and such, and it is those people who actually keep that website going. It’s a little counter-productive if you ask me.
Her: That’s exactly my concerns too. And other publishers, and our authors. That we invest into the Goodreads website like that, time and money, but what’s to say that what happened to you won’t happen to our authors? Then everything we invested our time and money into could just be wiped out in a moment without warning, notice or inquiry.
Me: Exactly.
Her: I was there that day when all of this broke out, watching and reading all those posts. I was close to horrified. I kept thinking, Goodreads will step in and stop these people. But they never did.
Me: I covered that in my last journal. Which is why I question the credibility of a website that doesn’t enforce their TOS, and endorses bullies.
Her: I read that. That’s the irony of why I contacted you. Me and other publishers have been talking behind the scenes about how easy it was for you to be removed and none of us think you did anything to deserve it. It causes us to start thinking about our authors who are members of that website and how easy could it happen to them.
Me: Evidently, pretty easy.
Her: This all started because of that girl? Because I know your blog post had nothing to do with the onslaught you received. Most of the comments made that day circled around you and that girl.
Me: My thoughts as well. Apparently, my personal life is of great concern to everybody.
Her: So she was the person behind the attack on you?
Me: Oh yes, she organized the whole thing.
Her: I know her. I am in her group. I would have never believed she would be capable of something like that. And there lies my fear for my authors. I have already advised them to try and avoid any contact with her, and her friends. Obviously, the people she is associated with are the people who attacked you, and I don’t want my authors getting involved with people like that. The other publishers I have spoken with have advised their authors the same thing. Following this story as best I can and following your blog posts, I have long figured out that she is bad news.
Me: Go figure, right?
Her: Which kind of leads me to another point of interest. Do you think it could be possible for you to tell me the whole story behind everything? I really want to be able to educate my authors in hopes they don’t find themselves being targeted by this girl or these people. What set her off? Things like that. In your last journal you mentioned that you were thinking about posting the whole story. Are you really going to do that? Have you decided yet?
Me: I haven’t decided yet. My lawyer and I are still discussing my options.
Her: So a lawsuit is still a possibility?
Me: Yeah, but the thing is, it will cost me a lot of money to go after Goodreads, Patrick Brown and a few select others in court, and no matter how air tight you think your case might be, it is still a 50/50 shot that you win. That goes for anything in life just about. You never know how a jury or judge will see things. I am trying to decide if the risk is worth the reward.
Her: I see. Well listen, do you think it is possible that you could send me that story regardless of whether or not you post it on your blog? I would really like to learn about the hows and whys this happened to you. I would like to pass that information along to my authors and to my publisher friends and their authors.
Me: Kind of like a learning tool?
Her: Yes. I think it would be very helpful.
Me: Sure. I don’t see why not. It would be nice to have something good come from this mess.
Her: I would appreciate it. And if it’s not too much trouble, I already put together a list of people who involved themselves in this situation from your recent post, The List 2. I have seen those fake ratings and reviews. I have passed it around to my authors and other publishers on Goodreads and their authors of people our authors should avoid. Everyone who has posted a negative rating or review or comment are on that list. I was wondering when you were going to get around to talking about that on your blog. The more people we can name, the more people our authors can avoid to better prevent them from getting caught up in something like this. Since it doesn’t seem like that Patrick or Goodreads have our authors best interests in mind, we have to kind of fend for them, you know?
Me: My sentiments exactly. And you are right, if anybody wants to know who to avoid on Goodreads or wants to know who the bullies are, all they have to do is go to my book reviews and there you will find them. They left a pretty big trail. Or you could go to a group on Goodreads called “Authors behaving Badly“ and check out the members. That might give you a good idea also. Maybe they should rename it “The Bullies of Goodeads“.(Laughter) You want names of blogs with that as well?
Her: Sure. That would be fantastic. Thank you. Thank you very much. I heard of that group. Maybe send me a link?
Me: No problem. Like I said, maybe something good can come from all of this after all. It’s a private group, but I’m pretty sure if you send a request and mention how much you hate me, they would probably accept you. (Laughter)
Her: That’s too bad. Now you can’t see what they are saying about you.
Me: Oh, I know what they’re saying. I have a few spies in the house. I have screen shots. Plenty of screen shots.
Her: Really? Do you plan on posting them anytime soon?
Me: Eventually. Maybe. It seems that these people are all about proof and evidence. Instead of accusing them of stuff, I will just post what they are doing and let the facts speak for themselves about who the real bullies are. (Laughter)
Her: You are sneaky, aren’t you?
Me: Pretty much. When I have to be. I get everybody to look at my right hand while I do things with my left. I think it’ll be an interesting post once I am ready to post it.
Her: When do you think that will be?
Me: Haven’t decided yet.
Her: The thing I notice is that you only post what these people post on other sites, blogs and what not, then they get really angry with you about it. I don’t get it.
Me: It’s a conundrum, isn’t it?
Her: I still can’t believe that Patrick just deleted all those poems you posted without at least getting a hold of you first and getting your side. I can’t believe he let those people attack you like that and none of them got banned.
Me: Well, like somebody once said in a comment on one of my blog posts, the man is a minimum wage internet babysitter, how professional did you expect him to be? (Laughter)
Her: (Laughter) Oh my God, I saw that comment. That was hilarious. Still, it throws a deep concern into many authors and publishers that Godreads would allow such a thing to occur and then ban an author like that for no reason other than personal. It also throws up a red flag about investing into advertisements and everything. I really saw an ugly side of Goodreads, and many of its members through your experience and I am not the only one. There are a lot of publishers on Goodreads, and editors and authors who saw what happened to you and they fear that they could be targeted next by these people.
Me: I have an easy solution to that.
Her: You do? What?
Me: Kiss their asses. (Laughter) That’s what they want you to do and if you don’t, then they target you. So, just kiss their asses if you can live with yourself about it.
Her: You didn’t kiss their ass.
Me: And you saw what happened, right? But you do have a real concern there. They did say I was the flavor of the week and that next month I would be forgotten and they would move on to the next author. So … yeah, I would say you and all your authors have a real deep concern.
Her: I read that too. That was what actually got me to thinking and to start communicating with other publishers about the situation. Thanks for talking with me. I really appreciate it. And thanks for when you send me that story and that list. I hope it’s not putting you out too much.
Me: Not at all. It might be a few weeks or so, but I will try and get it to you as soon as I can. I’ll even send you some screen shots of their group and stuff. In return, do I have your permission to post this conversation on my blog?
Her: Just don’t use any names. I saw how those people went after your friend on her blog, and how Goodreads and Patrick Brown punished anybody who tried to defend you.
Me: Not a problem. I won’t mention any names. Not that it would make a difference for them. They just hate for the sake of hate. They seem to think it’s okay for them to trash authors and or their books, but when authors speak out against them, they get all bitchy and bully. Not that I approve of authors getting upset over unfavorable reviews, I have always maintained that readers have every right to their opinion. But what I did had absolutely nothing to do with reviews, it was about a small select of individuals who broke their promise to me. I guess they can’t handle the truth about themselves. Or being “reviewed” unfavorably in return. They can dish it out, but they just can’t take it. For some reason, they think when they come to you and offer their service in exchange for your work for free that if they don’t own up to their end of the deal that it’s not stealing.
Her: But that is stealing. That's what stealing means.
Me: You know that. I know that. My five year old nephew knows that. Anybody with half a brain knows that. Unfortunately, they don’t know that. It’s kind of like a shop-lifter who steals a pack of gum. When they get caught they are like, “That’s not stealing, it’s just gum.” (Laughter) No, dumb-ass, it’s stealing. Then they hate you for calling them on it.
Her: They do seem to have plenty of hate in them, I‘ll give them that. Thanks again, Carroll. Maybe we can talk later sometime? Keep emailing?
Me: Sure. And here I thought you were going to offer me a deal or something to publish my books. (Laughter)
Her: I read already where you enjoy being Indie too much.
Me: I do like being Indie, that’s for sure.
er: Yeah, that’s what I thought. I told you I follow your blog. You might be surprised at how many publishers follow you. I talk to a few a week sometimes and your name almost always comes up. You have a lot of supporters. More than what you might think.
Me: That’s good to know. Thanks.
Her: Okay, well, I’ll let you go now. Thanks again for everything.
Me: No problem. Take care. Maybe we’ll talk again soon.
Her: Sounds good. Goodbye.
Me: Goodbye.
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You know, I just got done watching one of my favorite movies today. It’s called, “A League Of Their Own”. Everybody knows it’s a story about the first women’s professional baseball league, but it’s also a story about friendship and lasting fond memories. I see it as a story about time. How time passes more quickly than we think. With that passing of time, comes what we leave behind as human beings. What we leave for the next generation, and what we teach them. Thinking about that - and this situation - I ask myself, “What are we teaching the young?” - Apparently, we are teaching them that it’s okay to bully online. That it’s okay to put ourselves into other people’s business. Or to harass them. Or to try and stomp out somebody’s dream. Somebody we don’t even know and has done nothing to us. To be honest, I am astounded by how many people there are that are so full of hate, jealousy and resentment. It absolutely amazes me. I mean, these people are just consumed by hatred. It really does boggle the mind.
There only about five people who should have a problem with my “List” of bad bloggers (And that's the people who were on it). Everybody else who has chosen to involve themselves have chosen to teach our younger people how to bully and how to hate. How to try and silence someone when we don’t agree with their opinion. People will do this online because it is easier to do than if it had to be done in real life or face to face. This is the world that was created with the invention of the internet. A safe haven for bullies and haters to get away with saying and doing things under the guise of mostly, the famous “anon”. The internet has created many keyboard ‘tough’ guys and gals. Courage comes now days in the form of a key stroke.
But I don’t just lay blame on these people. It makes it easier to do these (and say these) horrible things to others (of whom we do not know) when people in charge (Patrick Brown and the rest of the GR staff) allows it. Endorses it. This episode has cheapened the value of Goodreads and its members. And I hold Patrick responsible for that. The bottom line is still the same, nobody wins. Not even the young people of whom it is our responsibility as adults to teach properly on how to handle situations. Everyone who has made the decision to throw themselves into this mess has taught their children how to hate. That is the saddest result of all.
If someone is always trying to find the worst in you, it's because they can't find the best in themselves.
*** To the person who earlier in my comment section, issued a "final warning" - Get a life. A non-keyboard, internet life. Find something constructive to do with your time. Do something that will make mom and dad proud of you. I bet they haven't been proud of you since that time you rode the little yellow bus all by yourself for the first time. Oh, and try and refrain yourself from stalking me. I know I am lovable, but you need to get a grip on reality. You and I - it's not gonna happen. I know you hate to love me and love to hate me, but you really should think about getting outside once in a while. Breathe in some fresh air. You know, stuff like that. Think about it anyway. Maybe give it a try. And if you're not going to listen to my advice then at elast when you comment, do so under your real name. Stop neing a coward. For a bunch of bullies, you sure are cowards about it. ***
Straight From Wikipedia
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Wednesday, August 29, 2012
American Indians: Tecumseh
Tecumseh lived between March 1768 and October 5th, 1813. He was a Native American leader of the Shawnee and a large tribal confederacy (known as Tecumseh’s Confederacy) which opposed the United States during Tecumseh’s War and the War of 1812. Tecumseh has become an iconic folk hero in American, Indian and Canadian history. Being from Chillicothe, Ohio, Tecumseh was the first Indian (Native American) I ever learned about. Also, here in Chillicothe, we hold an outdoor drama in his honor that goes on through the summers. It's one of the biggest community theaters in the united states. A launching pad for local actors. Auditions are intense, but a great play to have on your resume for those who are trying to break into the business. I actually went to an audition during my sophmore year in high school, however, when offered a part, I turned it down to concentrate on high school football. (My height - six foot three inches - and my Native American ancestry - my grandfather was 1/4 Cherokee nation - was a plus) That was also the last summer for football as during the season, I hurt my knee and ankle. I often wondered what my life path would have been had I chose acting. I only wish I had the "bug". As it currently stands, I am considering auditioning again sometime in the next few years. (But only considering it)
Tecumseh grew up in the Ohio Country during the American Revolutionary War and the Northwest Indian War, where he was constantly exposed to warfare. With Americans continuing to encroach on Indian territory after the British ceded the Ohio Valley to the new United States in 1783, the Shawnee moved farther northwest. In 1808, they settled Prophetstown in present-day Indiana. With a vision of establishing an independent American Indian nation east of the Mississippi under British protection, Tecumseh worked to recruit additional tribes to the confederacy from the southern United States.
During the War of 1812, Tecumseh's confederacy allied with the British in The Canada’s (the collective name for the colonies of Upper Canada and Lower Canada), and helped in the capture of Fort Detroit. American forces killed Tecumseh in the Battle of the Thames, in October 1813. His confederation fell apart, the British deserted their Indian allies at the peace conference that ended the War of 1812, the dream of an independent Indian state in the Midwest vanished, and American settlers took possession of all the territory south of the Great Lakes, driving the Indians west or into reservations.
Tecumseh's father was Puckshinwa (in Shawnee, Puckshinwa, meaning “Alights from Flying“, “Something that drops” or “I light from flying“, also known as Puckeshinwa, Pucksinwah, Pukshinwa, Pukeesheno, Pekishinoah, Pooksehnwe and other variations), a minor Shawnee war chief of the Kospoko (“Dancing Tail” or “Panther“) band and the Panther Clan of the tribe. Puckshinwa's father was Muscogee (Creek) and his mother was Shawnee. Either because his father died when he was young or because among the Creeks a husband lives with his wife's family, Puckshinwa was considered a Shawnee.
Tecumseh's mother was Methotaske (in Shawnee, Methotaske, meaning “One who Lays Eggs in the Sand” or “A turtle laying eggs in the sand“, also known as Methoataske, Meetheetashe, Methotase and Methoatase), Puckshinwa's second wife. She is believed to have been Shawnee through her father and her mother, possibly of the Pekowi band and the Turtle Clan. Some traditions hold that she was Creek, because she had lived among that tribe prior to marriage; some hold that she was Cherokee, having died in old age living among that tribe; still others hold that she was a white captive, as family stories claim that Puckshinwa had been married to a white captive.
Shawnee lineage was recorded paternally, which made Tecumseh a member of the Kispoko.
At the time Tecumseh's parents married, their tribe was living somewhere near modern Yuscaloosa, Alabama. The tribe had lived in that region alongside the Creek tribe since being driven from their homes in the Ohio River Valley by the Iroquois (based in New York and Pennsylvania) during the 17th-century Beaver Wars.
About 1759, the Pekowi band decided to move west into the Ohio Country. Not wanting to force his wife to choose between him and her family, Puckshinwa decided to travel north with her. The Pekowi founded the settlement of Chillicothe where Tecumseh was likely born. During the 1760s, Puckshinwa took part in the French and Indian War.
Tecumseh, meaning “Shooting Star” or “Panther Across The Sky“, (also known as Tecumtha or Tecamthi) was born about March 1768. His birthplace, according to popular tradition, was Old Chillicothe (the present-day Old-town area of Xenia Township, Greene County, Ohio, about 12 miles (19 km) east of Dayton.) As Old Chillicothe was not settled by the Shawnee until 1774, it is believed that Tecumseh may have been born in a different “Chillicothe” (or as the Shawnee say, Chalahgawtha), which was the tribe's name for its principal village, wherever it was located. Tecumseh is believed to have been born in a Chillicothe along the Scioto River, near the present-day city of Chillicothe, Ohio. Not long after Tecumseh's birth, the family moved to the village of Scioto.
When Tecumseh was a boy, his father Puckshinwa was “brutally murdered” by white frontiersmen who had crossed onto Indian land in violation of a recent treaty, at the Battle of Point Pleasant during Lord Dunmore’s War in 1774. Tecumseh resolved to become a warrior like his father and to be “a fire spreading over the hill and valley, consuming the race of dark souls.”
At age 15, after the American Revolutionary War, Tecumseh joined a band of Shawnee who were determined to stop the white invasion of their lands by attacking settlers’ flatboats traveling down the Ohio River from Pennsylvania. In time, Tecumseh became the leader of his own band of warriors. For a while, these Indian raids were so effective that river traffic virtually ceased.
At least five times between 1712 and 1782, Tecumseh's village was attacked by colonials and later American armies, as the Shawnee had allied with the British during the American Revolutionary War. Following his father's death, his family moved back to Chief Blackfish’s nearby village of Chillicothe. The town was destroyed in 1779 by Kentucky militia in reprisal for Blackfish's attack on Boonesburough. His family fled to another nearby Kispoko village, but this was destroyed in 1780 by forces under the command of George Rogers Clark. The family moved a third time to the village of Sanding Stone. That village was attacked by Clark in November 1782, and the family moved to a new Shawnee settlement near modern Bellefontaine, Ohio.
Violence continued on the American frontier after the Revolution as the Northwest Indian War. A large tribal confederacy, known as the Wabash Confederacy, which included all the major tribes of Ohio and the Illinois Country, formed to repel the American settlers from the region. As the war between the confederacy and the Americans grew, Tecumseh became a warrior and took an active part fighting along with his older brother Cheeseekau, an important war leader who essentially raised Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa after their parents’ early deaths. Their older sister, Tecumapese, was also very important to their upbringing.
In early 1789, Tecumseh traveled south with Cheeseekau to live among, and fight alongside, the Chickamauga faction of the Cherokee. Accompanied by twelve Shawnee warriors, they stayed at Running Water (in Marion County, Tennessee), where Cheeseekau's wife and daughter lived. There Tecumseh met Dragging Canoe, a famous leader who was leading a resistance movement against U.S. expansion. Cheeseekau was killed while leading a raid, and Tecumseh assumed leadership of the small Shawnee band, and subsequent Chickamauga raiding parties. Tecumseh returned to Ohio in late 1790, having fathered a Cherokee daughter before leaving (according to Cherokee oral tradition). Afterward, Tecumseh took part in several battles, including that of the 1794 Fallen Timbers. The Indians were defeated by the Americans, which ended the Northwestern Indian Wars in favor of the Americans.
Tecumseh eventually settled in what is now Greenville, Ohio, the home of his younger brother, Lalawethika (“He Makes A Loud Noise“) who would later take the new name of Tenkswatawa (“The Open Door“). After difficult years as a young man who suffered from alcoholism, Tenskwatawa became a religious leader. Known as “The Shawnee Prophet“, he advocated a return of the Shawnee and other American Indians to their ancestral lifestyle and rejection of the colonists and Americans. He attracted a large following among Indians who had already suffered major epidemics and dispossession of their lands. In 1805, Tenskwatawa led a religious revival following a series of witch-hunts following an outbreak of smallpox among the Shawnee. His beliefs were based on the earlier teachings of the Lenape prophets, Scattamek, and Neolin, who predicted a coming apocalypse that would destroy the European-American settlers.
Tenskwatawa urged natives to reject the ways of the Europeans: to give up firearms, liquor, European style clothing, to pay traders only half the value of their debts, and to refrain from ceding any more lands to the United States. The teachings led to rising tensions between the settlers and his followers. Opposing Tenskwatawa was the Shawnee leader Black Hoof, who was working to maintain a peaceful relationship with the United States. The earliest record of Tecumseh's interaction with the Americans was in 1807, when the US Indian agent William Wells met with Blue Jacket and other Shawnee leaders in Greenville to determine their intentions after the recent murder of a settler. Tecumseh was among those who spoke with Wells and assured him that his band of Shawnee intended to remain at peace and wanted only to follow the will of the Great Spirit and his prophet. According to Well's report, Tecumseh told him that the Prophet intended to move with his followers deeper into the frontier and away from American settlements.
By 1808, due to increasing tensions with the encroaching settlers, Black Hoof demanded that Tenskwatawa and his followers leave the area. Tecumseh was among the leaders of the group, and helped decide to move further northwest and establish the village of Prophetstown near the confluence of the Wabash and Tippecanoe rivers (near present-day Battle Ground, Indiana). The site was in Miami tribe territory, and their Chief Little Turtle warned the group not to settle there. Despite the threat, the Shawnee moved into the region and the Miami left them alone. According to his brother's later account, Tecumseh was already contemplating a pan-tribal confederacy to counter American expansion into Indian-held lands. He was considered a natural and charismatic leader. Tenskwatawa's religious teachings became more widely known, as did his predictions on the coming doom of the Americans. His teachings attracted numerous members of other tribes to Prophetstown; they formed the basis of a sizeable confederacy of tribes in the southwestern Great Lakes region. Tecumseh emerged as the primary leader of this confederation, although it had started with warriors attracted by the religious appeal of his younger brother. Relatively few in confederacy were Shawnee; the confederacy was made up primarily of other tribes.
The two principal adversaries in the conflict, Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison, had both been junior participants in the Battle of Fallen Timbers at the close of the Northwest Indian War in 1794. Tecumseh was not among the signers of the Treaty of Greenville that had ended the war and ceded much of present-day Ohio, long inhabited by the Shawnee and other Native Americans, to the United States. However, many Indian leaders in the region accepted the Greenville terms, and for the next ten years pan-tribal resistance to American hegemony faded. After the Treaty of Greenville, most of the Ohio Shawnee settled at the Shawnee village of Wapakoneta on the Auglaize River, where they were led by Black Hoof, a senior chief who had signed the treaty. Little Turtle, a War Chief of the Miami’s, who had also participated in the earlier war and signed the Greenville Treaty, lived in his village on the Eel River. Both Black Hoof and Little Turtle urged cultural adaptation and accommodation with the United States. The tribes of the region participated in several treaties including the Treaty of Grouseland and the Treaty of Vincennes that gave and recognized American possession of most of southern Indiana. The treaties resulted in an easing of tensions by allowing settlers into Indiana and appeasing the Indians with reimbursement for the lands the settlers were squatting on.
In September 1809, William Henry Harrison, governor of the newly formed Indian Territory, negotiated the Treaty of Fort Wayne in which a delegation of Indians ceded 3 million acres of Native American lands to the United States. The treaty negotiations were questionable as they were unauthorized by the President and thus the United States government, and involved what some historians compared to bribery, offering large subsidies to the tribes and their chiefs, and the liberal distribution of liquor before the negotiations. Tecumseh's opposition to the treaty marked his emergence as a prominent leader. Although Tecumseh and the Shawnee had no claim on the land sold, he was alarmed by the massive sale as many of the followers in Prophetstown were Piankeshaw, Kickapoo, and Wea, who were the primary inhabitants of the land. Tecumseh revived an idea advocated in previous years by the Shawnee leader Blue Jacket and the Mohawk leader Joseph Brant, which stated that Indian land was owned in common by all. Not ready to confront the United States directly, Tecumseh's primary adversaries were initially the Indian leaders who had signed the treaty. An impressive orator, Tecumseh began to travel widely, urging warriors to abandon accommodationist chiefs and to join him in resistance of the treaty. Tecumseh insisted that the Fort Wayne treaty was illegal; he asked Harrison to nullify it, and warned that Americans should not attempt to settle on the lands sold in the treaty. Tecumseh is quoted as saying, “No tribe has the right to sell (land), even to each other, much less to strangers. Sell a country!? Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth? Didn't the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?” And, “The only way to stop this evil (loss of land) is for the red man to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land, as it was first, and should be now, for it was never divided.”
Tecumseh met with Indiana Governor William Henry Harrison to demand the rescission of land purchase treaties the US had forced on the Shawnee and other tribes. Harrison refused.
In August 1810, Tecumseh led four hundred armed warriors from Prophetstown to confront Harrison at his Vincennes home, Grouseland. Their appearance startled the townspeople, and the situation quickly became dangerous when Harrison rejected Tecumseh's demand and argued that individual tribes could have relations with the United States, and that Tecumseh's interference was unwelcome by the tribes of the area. Tecumseh launched an impassioned rebuttal against Harrison. Tecumseh began inciting the warriors to kill Harrison, who responded by pulling his sword. The small garrison defending the town quickly moved to protect Harrison. Potawatomi Chief Winnemac arose and countered Tecumseh's arguments to the group, and urged the warriors to leave in peace. As they left, Tecumseh informed Harrison that unless he rescinded the treaty, he would seek an alliance with the British. In 1811, Tecumseh again met with Harrison at his home after being summoned following the murder of settlers on the frontier. Tecumseh told Harrison that the Shawnee and their Native American brothers wanted to remain at peace with the United States but these differences had to be resolved. The meeting had just a merely tentative character and both parties probably inferred from it that war was unavoidable.
Following the meeting Tecumseh traveled south, on a mission to recruit allies among the Five Civilized tribes. Despite Tecumseh's efforts, anyhow, most of the southern nations rejected his appeals, and particularly Choctaw Chief Pushmataha, who stood fast and insisted upon sticking to the peace treaties that had been signed with the U.S. Government. However, a faction among the Creeks, who came to be known as the Red Sticks, answered his call to arms, leading to the Creek War. A comet appeared in March 181, the Shawnee leader Tecumseh, whose name meant “shooting star“, told the Creeks that the comet signaled his coming. Tecumseh's confederacy and allies took it as an omen of good luck. McKenney reported that Tecumseh claimed he would prove that the Great Spirit had sent him to the Creeks by giving the tribes a sign.
If Tecumseh, soon after Vincennes’s meeting, got down to preparing for war, Governor Harrison got much farther. Having heard from his excellent intelligence that Tecumseh was far away, he sent this report to the Department of War: Tecumseh “is now upon the last round to put a finishing stroke upon his work. I hope, however, before his return that that part of the work which he considered complete will be demolished and even its foundation rooted up.” Accordingly, Governor Harrison moved from Vincennes on September 26, 1811, with about 1,000 men in fighting trim, and marched on Tippecanoe. On November 6, 1811, Harrison's army arrived outside Prophetstown. The Prophet sent a messenger to meet with Harrison and requested a meeting be held the next day to negotiate. Harrison encamped his army on a nearby hill, and during the early dawn hours of November 7, the confederacy launched a sneak attack on his camp. In the Battle of Tippecanoe, Harrison's men held their ground, and the Indians withdrew from the village after the battle. The victorious Americans burned the town and returned to Vincennes. The Battle of Tippecanoe was a severe blow for Tenskwatawa, who lost both prestige and the confidence of his brother. Although it was a significant setback, Tecumseh began to secretly rebuild his alliance upon his return. The Americans soon after went to war with the British in the War of 1812, and Tecumseh's War became a part of that struggle. On December 16, 1811, the New Madrid Earthquake shook the South and the Midwest. While the interpretation of this event varied from tribe to tribe, one consensus was universally accepted: the powerful earthquake had to have meant something. For many tribes it meant that Tecumseh and the Prophet must be supported.
Tecumseh rallied his confederacy and allied his forces with the British army invading the Northwest Territory from Upper Canada. He joined British Major-General Sir Isaac Brock in the Siege of Detroit, helping to force the city's surrender in August 1812. At one point in the battle, as Brock advanced to a point just out of range of Detroit's guns, Tecumseh had his approximately four hundred warriors parade out from a nearby wood and circle back around to repeat the maneuver, making it appear that there were many more warriors under his command than was actually the case. The fort commander, Brigadier General William Hull, surrendered in fear of a massacre should he refuse (and was later court-martialed for his actions). The victory was of a great strategic value to the British allies. The next British commander in the region, Major-General Henry Proctor, wanted to honor Tecumseh for his help at the Siege of Detroit. He gave Tecumseh a sash, while offering him the rank of brigadier general in the British army. Tecumseh refused the commission and gave the sash away. The victory at Detroit was reversed a little over a year later. Commodore Perry’s victory on Lake Erie late in the summer of 1813 cut the British supply lines. Along with William Henry Harrison's successful defense of Fort Miegs (creating a staging area for the recapture of Fort Detroit), the British found themselves in an indefensible position and had to withdraw from the city. They burned all public buildings in Detroit and retreated into Upper Canada along the Thames Valley. Tecumseh sought British support for continuing to defend their lands against the Americans. However, Harrison led a much larger counter assault and invaded Canada.
On October 5, 1813, the Americans attacked and won a victory over the British and Native Americans at the Battle of the Thames, near Moraviantown. Tecumseh was killed, and shortly after the battle, most tribes of his confederacy surrendered to Harrison at Detroit. As to the actual circumstances surrounding Tecumseh’s death, the Americans claimed that (he) was killed by Colonel Richard Johnson during a cavalry charge.
One of the festivals we hold in Chillicothe at the end of the summer is "The Feast of the Flowering Moon". Chillicothe is rich in tradition where Native Americans are concerned. It is also my favorite festival as you get to discover the history of Native Americans, and watch a lot of mini-plays (as I call them). With teepees set up all over Yoctangee Park, you get to look inside and get a feel of the Native American life-style. It's really amazing.
Source: Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Tecumseh
This work is released under CC 3.0 BY-SA - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Tecumseh grew up in the Ohio Country during the American Revolutionary War and the Northwest Indian War, where he was constantly exposed to warfare. With Americans continuing to encroach on Indian territory after the British ceded the Ohio Valley to the new United States in 1783, the Shawnee moved farther northwest. In 1808, they settled Prophetstown in present-day Indiana. With a vision of establishing an independent American Indian nation east of the Mississippi under British protection, Tecumseh worked to recruit additional tribes to the confederacy from the southern United States.
During the War of 1812, Tecumseh's confederacy allied with the British in The Canada’s (the collective name for the colonies of Upper Canada and Lower Canada), and helped in the capture of Fort Detroit. American forces killed Tecumseh in the Battle of the Thames, in October 1813. His confederation fell apart, the British deserted their Indian allies at the peace conference that ended the War of 1812, the dream of an independent Indian state in the Midwest vanished, and American settlers took possession of all the territory south of the Great Lakes, driving the Indians west or into reservations.
Tecumseh's father was Puckshinwa (in Shawnee, Puckshinwa, meaning “Alights from Flying“, “Something that drops” or “I light from flying“, also known as Puckeshinwa, Pucksinwah, Pukshinwa, Pukeesheno, Pekishinoah, Pooksehnwe and other variations), a minor Shawnee war chief of the Kospoko (“Dancing Tail” or “Panther“) band and the Panther Clan of the tribe. Puckshinwa's father was Muscogee (Creek) and his mother was Shawnee. Either because his father died when he was young or because among the Creeks a husband lives with his wife's family, Puckshinwa was considered a Shawnee.
Tecumseh's mother was Methotaske (in Shawnee, Methotaske, meaning “One who Lays Eggs in the Sand” or “A turtle laying eggs in the sand“, also known as Methoataske, Meetheetashe, Methotase and Methoatase), Puckshinwa's second wife. She is believed to have been Shawnee through her father and her mother, possibly of the Pekowi band and the Turtle Clan. Some traditions hold that she was Creek, because she had lived among that tribe prior to marriage; some hold that she was Cherokee, having died in old age living among that tribe; still others hold that she was a white captive, as family stories claim that Puckshinwa had been married to a white captive.
Shawnee lineage was recorded paternally, which made Tecumseh a member of the Kispoko.
At the time Tecumseh's parents married, their tribe was living somewhere near modern Yuscaloosa, Alabama. The tribe had lived in that region alongside the Creek tribe since being driven from their homes in the Ohio River Valley by the Iroquois (based in New York and Pennsylvania) during the 17th-century Beaver Wars.
About 1759, the Pekowi band decided to move west into the Ohio Country. Not wanting to force his wife to choose between him and her family, Puckshinwa decided to travel north with her. The Pekowi founded the settlement of Chillicothe where Tecumseh was likely born. During the 1760s, Puckshinwa took part in the French and Indian War.
Tecumseh, meaning “Shooting Star” or “Panther Across The Sky“, (also known as Tecumtha or Tecamthi) was born about March 1768. His birthplace, according to popular tradition, was Old Chillicothe (the present-day Old-town area of Xenia Township, Greene County, Ohio, about 12 miles (19 km) east of Dayton.) As Old Chillicothe was not settled by the Shawnee until 1774, it is believed that Tecumseh may have been born in a different “Chillicothe” (or as the Shawnee say, Chalahgawtha), which was the tribe's name for its principal village, wherever it was located. Tecumseh is believed to have been born in a Chillicothe along the Scioto River, near the present-day city of Chillicothe, Ohio. Not long after Tecumseh's birth, the family moved to the village of Scioto.
When Tecumseh was a boy, his father Puckshinwa was “brutally murdered” by white frontiersmen who had crossed onto Indian land in violation of a recent treaty, at the Battle of Point Pleasant during Lord Dunmore’s War in 1774. Tecumseh resolved to become a warrior like his father and to be “a fire spreading over the hill and valley, consuming the race of dark souls.”
At age 15, after the American Revolutionary War, Tecumseh joined a band of Shawnee who were determined to stop the white invasion of their lands by attacking settlers’ flatboats traveling down the Ohio River from Pennsylvania. In time, Tecumseh became the leader of his own band of warriors. For a while, these Indian raids were so effective that river traffic virtually ceased.
At least five times between 1712 and 1782, Tecumseh's village was attacked by colonials and later American armies, as the Shawnee had allied with the British during the American Revolutionary War. Following his father's death, his family moved back to Chief Blackfish’s nearby village of Chillicothe. The town was destroyed in 1779 by Kentucky militia in reprisal for Blackfish's attack on Boonesburough. His family fled to another nearby Kispoko village, but this was destroyed in 1780 by forces under the command of George Rogers Clark. The family moved a third time to the village of Sanding Stone. That village was attacked by Clark in November 1782, and the family moved to a new Shawnee settlement near modern Bellefontaine, Ohio.
Violence continued on the American frontier after the Revolution as the Northwest Indian War. A large tribal confederacy, known as the Wabash Confederacy, which included all the major tribes of Ohio and the Illinois Country, formed to repel the American settlers from the region. As the war between the confederacy and the Americans grew, Tecumseh became a warrior and took an active part fighting along with his older brother Cheeseekau, an important war leader who essentially raised Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa after their parents’ early deaths. Their older sister, Tecumapese, was also very important to their upbringing.
In early 1789, Tecumseh traveled south with Cheeseekau to live among, and fight alongside, the Chickamauga faction of the Cherokee. Accompanied by twelve Shawnee warriors, they stayed at Running Water (in Marion County, Tennessee), where Cheeseekau's wife and daughter lived. There Tecumseh met Dragging Canoe, a famous leader who was leading a resistance movement against U.S. expansion. Cheeseekau was killed while leading a raid, and Tecumseh assumed leadership of the small Shawnee band, and subsequent Chickamauga raiding parties. Tecumseh returned to Ohio in late 1790, having fathered a Cherokee daughter before leaving (according to Cherokee oral tradition). Afterward, Tecumseh took part in several battles, including that of the 1794 Fallen Timbers. The Indians were defeated by the Americans, which ended the Northwestern Indian Wars in favor of the Americans.
Tecumseh eventually settled in what is now Greenville, Ohio, the home of his younger brother, Lalawethika (“He Makes A Loud Noise“) who would later take the new name of Tenkswatawa (“The Open Door“). After difficult years as a young man who suffered from alcoholism, Tenskwatawa became a religious leader. Known as “The Shawnee Prophet“, he advocated a return of the Shawnee and other American Indians to their ancestral lifestyle and rejection of the colonists and Americans. He attracted a large following among Indians who had already suffered major epidemics and dispossession of their lands. In 1805, Tenskwatawa led a religious revival following a series of witch-hunts following an outbreak of smallpox among the Shawnee. His beliefs were based on the earlier teachings of the Lenape prophets, Scattamek, and Neolin, who predicted a coming apocalypse that would destroy the European-American settlers.
Tenskwatawa urged natives to reject the ways of the Europeans: to give up firearms, liquor, European style clothing, to pay traders only half the value of their debts, and to refrain from ceding any more lands to the United States. The teachings led to rising tensions between the settlers and his followers. Opposing Tenskwatawa was the Shawnee leader Black Hoof, who was working to maintain a peaceful relationship with the United States. The earliest record of Tecumseh's interaction with the Americans was in 1807, when the US Indian agent William Wells met with Blue Jacket and other Shawnee leaders in Greenville to determine their intentions after the recent murder of a settler. Tecumseh was among those who spoke with Wells and assured him that his band of Shawnee intended to remain at peace and wanted only to follow the will of the Great Spirit and his prophet. According to Well's report, Tecumseh told him that the Prophet intended to move with his followers deeper into the frontier and away from American settlements.
By 1808, due to increasing tensions with the encroaching settlers, Black Hoof demanded that Tenskwatawa and his followers leave the area. Tecumseh was among the leaders of the group, and helped decide to move further northwest and establish the village of Prophetstown near the confluence of the Wabash and Tippecanoe rivers (near present-day Battle Ground, Indiana). The site was in Miami tribe territory, and their Chief Little Turtle warned the group not to settle there. Despite the threat, the Shawnee moved into the region and the Miami left them alone. According to his brother's later account, Tecumseh was already contemplating a pan-tribal confederacy to counter American expansion into Indian-held lands. He was considered a natural and charismatic leader. Tenskwatawa's religious teachings became more widely known, as did his predictions on the coming doom of the Americans. His teachings attracted numerous members of other tribes to Prophetstown; they formed the basis of a sizeable confederacy of tribes in the southwestern Great Lakes region. Tecumseh emerged as the primary leader of this confederation, although it had started with warriors attracted by the religious appeal of his younger brother. Relatively few in confederacy were Shawnee; the confederacy was made up primarily of other tribes.
The two principal adversaries in the conflict, Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison, had both been junior participants in the Battle of Fallen Timbers at the close of the Northwest Indian War in 1794. Tecumseh was not among the signers of the Treaty of Greenville that had ended the war and ceded much of present-day Ohio, long inhabited by the Shawnee and other Native Americans, to the United States. However, many Indian leaders in the region accepted the Greenville terms, and for the next ten years pan-tribal resistance to American hegemony faded. After the Treaty of Greenville, most of the Ohio Shawnee settled at the Shawnee village of Wapakoneta on the Auglaize River, where they were led by Black Hoof, a senior chief who had signed the treaty. Little Turtle, a War Chief of the Miami’s, who had also participated in the earlier war and signed the Greenville Treaty, lived in his village on the Eel River. Both Black Hoof and Little Turtle urged cultural adaptation and accommodation with the United States. The tribes of the region participated in several treaties including the Treaty of Grouseland and the Treaty of Vincennes that gave and recognized American possession of most of southern Indiana. The treaties resulted in an easing of tensions by allowing settlers into Indiana and appeasing the Indians with reimbursement for the lands the settlers were squatting on.
In September 1809, William Henry Harrison, governor of the newly formed Indian Territory, negotiated the Treaty of Fort Wayne in which a delegation of Indians ceded 3 million acres of Native American lands to the United States. The treaty negotiations were questionable as they were unauthorized by the President and thus the United States government, and involved what some historians compared to bribery, offering large subsidies to the tribes and their chiefs, and the liberal distribution of liquor before the negotiations. Tecumseh's opposition to the treaty marked his emergence as a prominent leader. Although Tecumseh and the Shawnee had no claim on the land sold, he was alarmed by the massive sale as many of the followers in Prophetstown were Piankeshaw, Kickapoo, and Wea, who were the primary inhabitants of the land. Tecumseh revived an idea advocated in previous years by the Shawnee leader Blue Jacket and the Mohawk leader Joseph Brant, which stated that Indian land was owned in common by all. Not ready to confront the United States directly, Tecumseh's primary adversaries were initially the Indian leaders who had signed the treaty. An impressive orator, Tecumseh began to travel widely, urging warriors to abandon accommodationist chiefs and to join him in resistance of the treaty. Tecumseh insisted that the Fort Wayne treaty was illegal; he asked Harrison to nullify it, and warned that Americans should not attempt to settle on the lands sold in the treaty. Tecumseh is quoted as saying, “No tribe has the right to sell (land), even to each other, much less to strangers. Sell a country!? Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth? Didn't the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?” And, “The only way to stop this evil (loss of land) is for the red man to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land, as it was first, and should be now, for it was never divided.”
Tecumseh met with Indiana Governor William Henry Harrison to demand the rescission of land purchase treaties the US had forced on the Shawnee and other tribes. Harrison refused.
In August 1810, Tecumseh led four hundred armed warriors from Prophetstown to confront Harrison at his Vincennes home, Grouseland. Their appearance startled the townspeople, and the situation quickly became dangerous when Harrison rejected Tecumseh's demand and argued that individual tribes could have relations with the United States, and that Tecumseh's interference was unwelcome by the tribes of the area. Tecumseh launched an impassioned rebuttal against Harrison. Tecumseh began inciting the warriors to kill Harrison, who responded by pulling his sword. The small garrison defending the town quickly moved to protect Harrison. Potawatomi Chief Winnemac arose and countered Tecumseh's arguments to the group, and urged the warriors to leave in peace. As they left, Tecumseh informed Harrison that unless he rescinded the treaty, he would seek an alliance with the British. In 1811, Tecumseh again met with Harrison at his home after being summoned following the murder of settlers on the frontier. Tecumseh told Harrison that the Shawnee and their Native American brothers wanted to remain at peace with the United States but these differences had to be resolved. The meeting had just a merely tentative character and both parties probably inferred from it that war was unavoidable.
Following the meeting Tecumseh traveled south, on a mission to recruit allies among the Five Civilized tribes. Despite Tecumseh's efforts, anyhow, most of the southern nations rejected his appeals, and particularly Choctaw Chief Pushmataha, who stood fast and insisted upon sticking to the peace treaties that had been signed with the U.S. Government. However, a faction among the Creeks, who came to be known as the Red Sticks, answered his call to arms, leading to the Creek War. A comet appeared in March 181, the Shawnee leader Tecumseh, whose name meant “shooting star“, told the Creeks that the comet signaled his coming. Tecumseh's confederacy and allies took it as an omen of good luck. McKenney reported that Tecumseh claimed he would prove that the Great Spirit had sent him to the Creeks by giving the tribes a sign.
If Tecumseh, soon after Vincennes’s meeting, got down to preparing for war, Governor Harrison got much farther. Having heard from his excellent intelligence that Tecumseh was far away, he sent this report to the Department of War: Tecumseh “is now upon the last round to put a finishing stroke upon his work. I hope, however, before his return that that part of the work which he considered complete will be demolished and even its foundation rooted up.” Accordingly, Governor Harrison moved from Vincennes on September 26, 1811, with about 1,000 men in fighting trim, and marched on Tippecanoe. On November 6, 1811, Harrison's army arrived outside Prophetstown. The Prophet sent a messenger to meet with Harrison and requested a meeting be held the next day to negotiate. Harrison encamped his army on a nearby hill, and during the early dawn hours of November 7, the confederacy launched a sneak attack on his camp. In the Battle of Tippecanoe, Harrison's men held their ground, and the Indians withdrew from the village after the battle. The victorious Americans burned the town and returned to Vincennes. The Battle of Tippecanoe was a severe blow for Tenskwatawa, who lost both prestige and the confidence of his brother. Although it was a significant setback, Tecumseh began to secretly rebuild his alliance upon his return. The Americans soon after went to war with the British in the War of 1812, and Tecumseh's War became a part of that struggle. On December 16, 1811, the New Madrid Earthquake shook the South and the Midwest. While the interpretation of this event varied from tribe to tribe, one consensus was universally accepted: the powerful earthquake had to have meant something. For many tribes it meant that Tecumseh and the Prophet must be supported.
On October 5, 1813, the Americans attacked and won a victory over the British and Native Americans at the Battle of the Thames, near Moraviantown. Tecumseh was killed, and shortly after the battle, most tribes of his confederacy surrendered to Harrison at Detroit. As to the actual circumstances surrounding Tecumseh’s death, the Americans claimed that (he) was killed by Colonel Richard Johnson during a cavalry charge.
One of the festivals we hold in Chillicothe at the end of the summer is "The Feast of the Flowering Moon". Chillicothe is rich in tradition where Native Americans are concerned. It is also my favorite festival as you get to discover the history of Native Americans, and watch a lot of mini-plays (as I call them). With teepees set up all over Yoctangee Park, you get to look inside and get a feel of the Native American life-style. It's really amazing.
Source: Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Tecumseh
This work is released under CC 3.0 BY-SA - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Believe This
BELIEVE THIS - (Written by Carroll Bryant)
It's easy to get lost in your life
Feel me when I get lost in your eyes
I can't let you go
At least, not at this time
I thought you should know
My heart falls inside of me
Believe this, love reaches for its soul
It's easy to let it all go
This is my truth
I wait for a sign
I run back to you
All the while I cry
How am I gonna change when everything else stays the same?
I'm addicted to you
I'm addicted to pain
I'm addcited to love
And love is your name and I
Believe this, hearts never mend at all
It's so hard to trust in it all
I can't run away
My breath won't escape
I thought you should know
My feelings are all I can taste
How am I gonna change when everything else stays the same?
I'm addicted to you
I can't turn the page
I'm addicted to love
And love is your name and I ... believe this
It's easy to get lost in your life
Feel me when I get lost in your eyes
I can't let you go
At least, not at this time
I thought you should know
My heart falls inside of me
It's easy to get lost in your life
Feel me when I get lost in your eyes
I can't let you go
At least, not at this time
I thought you should know
My heart falls inside of me
Believe this, love reaches for its soul
It's easy to let it all go
This is my truth
I wait for a sign
I run back to you
All the while I cry
How am I gonna change when everything else stays the same?
I'm addicted to you
I'm addicted to pain
I'm addcited to love
And love is your name and I
Believe this, hearts never mend at all
It's so hard to trust in it all
I can't run away
My breath won't escape
I thought you should know
My feelings are all I can taste
How am I gonna change when everything else stays the same?
I'm addicted to you
I can't turn the page
I'm addicted to love
And love is your name and I ... believe this
It's easy to get lost in your life
Feel me when I get lost in your eyes
I can't let you go
At least, not at this time
I thought you should know
My heart falls inside of me
Monday, August 27, 2012
Of The Light (Review)
Okay, so I get online and see this email waiting for me. It was from my sister who was asking me if I had seen this review on my book "Of The Light". I said no, and went on to say, but I am now. (Expecting the worst) So I click the link in my favorites folder and there it was. I read it. I was blown away. I was caught so off guard with the words I was reading. I can't even find the words to describe properly how I am feeling about it. Instead of trying, I thought I would post it on my blog.
My mother saw it. She called me. She was practically in tears. She said the words that everyone wants to hear from the people they love, and especially their parents. She said, "I am so proud of you."
She has said that before on a few occasions, but never in the manner she did tonight. Never while weeping.
Here is the review:
"So I've been a big fan of author Carroll Bryant's poetry, music and other writings for quite some time now, but this is the first actual full length book of his I've picked up and I have to say there's no doubt about it, the man can write.
OF THE LIGHT gives an intriguing original twist on the long familiar, "the truth is out there, we are not alone" theme. It was this new idea of the aliens being "Light" beings that were created prior to human's existence and in the true image of a spiritual God, that first caught my attention.
Now, even with this story obviously being of the sci-fi genre, the characters are very real, right down to their flaws. And although I wanted to smack protagonist, Zenakis Vinzant, every time he let his promiscuous flag fly, which is...well, nearly the whole time (the guy just could not keep it in his pants) surprisingly, I still didn't hate him. Bryant was able to skillfully work a genuine sweetness in to the character; giving him an enduring quality that manages to shine past his shallow lack of self-control and bed-hopping ways and illuminates on the close relationships he shares with his family and friends. So basically Zen's a good guy...with some faults. In a word, he's human.
All in all, I enjoyed this fun sci-fi read and would be interested in seeing where Mr. Bryant takes Zen's story from here. And more so, I hope the reader gets to dive a bit deeper into the "Light" culture in the next installment."
Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/Of-The-Light-ebook/dp/B007XXRUDW/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1346114414&sr=1-3&keywords=carroll+bryant
This reviewer even started it off with a quote from the book:
"May the next rose that grows in the heart of your garden of love be without my thorns"
Reading things like this never gets old. I still get goose-bumps every single time.
My mother saw it. She called me. She was practically in tears. She said the words that everyone wants to hear from the people they love, and especially their parents. She said, "I am so proud of you."
She has said that before on a few occasions, but never in the manner she did tonight. Never while weeping.
Here is the review:
"So I've been a big fan of author Carroll Bryant's poetry, music and other writings for quite some time now, but this is the first actual full length book of his I've picked up and I have to say there's no doubt about it, the man can write.
OF THE LIGHT gives an intriguing original twist on the long familiar, "the truth is out there, we are not alone" theme. It was this new idea of the aliens being "Light" beings that were created prior to human's existence and in the true image of a spiritual God, that first caught my attention.
Now, even with this story obviously being of the sci-fi genre, the characters are very real, right down to their flaws. And although I wanted to smack protagonist, Zenakis Vinzant, every time he let his promiscuous flag fly, which is...well, nearly the whole time (the guy just could not keep it in his pants) surprisingly, I still didn't hate him. Bryant was able to skillfully work a genuine sweetness in to the character; giving him an enduring quality that manages to shine past his shallow lack of self-control and bed-hopping ways and illuminates on the close relationships he shares with his family and friends. So basically Zen's a good guy...with some faults. In a word, he's human.
All in all, I enjoyed this fun sci-fi read and would be interested in seeing where Mr. Bryant takes Zen's story from here. And more so, I hope the reader gets to dive a bit deeper into the "Light" culture in the next installment."
Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/Of-The-Light-ebook/dp/B007XXRUDW/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1346114414&sr=1-3&keywords=carroll+bryant
This reviewer even started it off with a quote from the book:
"May the next rose that grows in the heart of your garden of love be without my thorns"
Reading things like this never gets old. I still get goose-bumps every single time.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Joke 9 (The Doctor)
A woman and a baby were in the doctor's examining room, waiting for the doctor to come in for the baby's first exam. The doctor arrived, and examined the baby, checked his weight, and being a little concerned, asked if the baby was breast-fed or bottle-fed. "Breast-fed," she replied.
"Well, strip down to your waist," the doctor ordered. She did. He pinched her nipples, pressed, kneaded, and rubbed both breasts for a while in a very professional and detailed examination. Motioning to her to get dressed, the doctor said, "No wonder this baby is underweight. You don't have any milk."
"I know," she said, "I'm his Grandma, but I'm glad I came."
"Well, strip down to your waist," the doctor ordered. She did. He pinched her nipples, pressed, kneaded, and rubbed both breasts for a while in a very professional and detailed examination. Motioning to her to get dressed, the doctor said, "No wonder this baby is underweight. You don't have any milk."
"I know," she said, "I'm his Grandma, but I'm glad I came."
My thanks to Sharon for sharing this with me.
Flag Day - Egypt
I wanted to start off with the Egyptian flag because, to be honest, I just think it’s cool looking. Not to mention, it has a very interesting history. The flag of Egypt is a tricolor consisting of the three equal horizontal red, white, and black bands of the Arab Liberation flag dating back to the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. The flag bears Egypt's national emblem, the Eagle of Saladin centered in the white band.
The Free Officers who toppled King Farouk in the Revolution of 1952 assigned specific symbolism to each of the three bands of the Arab Liberation flag. The red band symbolizes the period before the Revolution, a time characterized by the struggle against the monarchy, and the British occupation of the country. The white band symbolizes the bloodless nature of the Revolution itself. The black band symbolizes the end of the oppression of the Egyptian people at the hands of the monarchy, and foreign imperialism. Egypt's use of the Arab Liberation flag inspired its adoption by a number of other Arab states. The same horizontal tricolor is used by Iraq, Syria, and Yemen (and formerly Libya), the only difference being the presence (or absence) of distinguishing national emblems in the white band.
The development of the modern Egyptian flag was determined first by the Muhammad Ali Dynasty, under whom Egypt was united with Sudan, and later by the rise of Arab nationalism.
When Muhammad Ali unsuccessfully seized power in Egypt, the country was officially a province of the Ottoman Empire. However, throughout his reign, and that of his sons and grandsons, Egypt enjoyed virtual independence as a Khedivate. To signify his autonomy from the Ottoman Porte, Muhammad Ali introduced a new Egyptian flag of three white crescents and three stars on a red field. It has been suggested that this was to symbolize the victory of his armies in three continents (Africa, Asia, and Europe), and his own sovereignty over Egypt, Sudan, and Hejaz. The similarity with the flag of the Ottoman Empire was deliberate, as Muhammad Ali harbored grandiose ambitions of deposing the Ottoman dynasty, and seizing the sultanic throne himself.
Egypt retained this flag even after formal Ottoman sovereignty was terminated in 1914, when Egypt was declared to be a sultanate, and a British protectorate. After the Urabi Revolt in 1882, British forces occupied the country, igniting ever greater nationalist resentment. This reached a peak in the Revolution of 1919, when both the red flag introduced by Muhammad Ali, and a special green banner bearing a crescent and cross were used in protests against the British (the latter symbolizing that both Egypt's Muslim and Christian communities supported the nationalist movement against the occupation).
In 1922, Britain agreed to formally recognize Egyptian independence, but only on the condition that the Sultan of Egypt, Fuad I, change his title to King. Upon so doing, the now King Fuad issued a Royal Decree formally adopting a new national flag of a white crescent with three white stars on a green background in it. The three stars symbolized the three component territories of the Kingdom, namely Egypt, Nubia, and Sudan. whilst the green signifies the agricultural nature of the country, other sources suggest that it symbolized the predominant religion of the country, Islam. It has also been suggested that the three stars represented the three religious communities of the country: Muslims, Christians and Jews. This lasted until 1953.
Following the Revolution of 1952, the Free Officers retained the flag of the Kingdom, but also introduced the Arab Liberation flag of red, white, and black horizontal bands, with the emblem of the Revolution, the Eagle of Saladin, in the center band. This earlier version of the eagle differs somewhat from the one later adopted. Even when the Kingdom was formally abolished by the declaration of the Republic on July 18, 1953, the flag of the Kingdom remained in official use until the formation of the United Arab Republic in 1958.
In 1958, Egypt and Syria united as the United Arab Republic (U.A.R.) and adopted a national flag based on the Arab Liberation flag, with two green stars (representing the two countries of the union) replacing the Eagle of Saladin in the white band. A modified version of the Eagle of Saladin was adopted as the U.A.R.'s coat of arms. (Up until 1972)
Though Syria withdrew from the U.A.R. in 1961, Egypt continued to use the official name of the United Arab Republic until 1971, when the country was renamed officially as the Arab Republic of Egypt. In 1972, when Egypt formed the Federation of Arab Republics along with Syria, and Libya, the U.A.R. flag (whose design Syria would reuse for their own flag, eight years later) was replaced by a common flag for the Federation, once again based on the Arab Liberation flag. The two green stars in the white band were replaced by the Hawk of Qureish, which had been the coat of arms of Syria prior to the formation of the U.A.R. in 1958. The Hawk of Qureish was also adopted as the Federation's coat of arms. The shade of red used in the red band was lightened slightly. (Up until 1984)
Whilst the Federation of Arab Republic was dissolved in 1977, Egypt retained the Federation's flag until October 4, 1984, when the black Hawk of Qureish was replaced in the white band (and on the coat of arms) by the Eagle of Saladin (the 1958 version as opposed to the 1952 version). In addition, the shade of red in the red band was restored to the slightly darker shade of the red band in the pre-Federation flag, and has remained as such to the present day.
The flag is hoisted on all Egyptian governmental buildings on Fridays, national holidays, the opening session of the People's Assembly, and any other occasions as determined by the Minister of the Interior. The flag is hoisted daily on border posts, customs buildings, Egyptian consulates and embassies overseas on Revolution Day (July 23), and other national holidays, as well as during the visit of the Egyptian President to the country hosting the diplomatic mission. Abusing the flag in any way is a criminal offense and is punishable under law as it implies contempt of the power of the state. Penal provisions also govern abuse of foreign flags or national emblems of other countries.
Source: Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Egypt
This work is released under CC 3.0 BY-SA - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
The Free Officers who toppled King Farouk in the Revolution of 1952 assigned specific symbolism to each of the three bands of the Arab Liberation flag. The red band symbolizes the period before the Revolution, a time characterized by the struggle against the monarchy, and the British occupation of the country. The white band symbolizes the bloodless nature of the Revolution itself. The black band symbolizes the end of the oppression of the Egyptian people at the hands of the monarchy, and foreign imperialism. Egypt's use of the Arab Liberation flag inspired its adoption by a number of other Arab states. The same horizontal tricolor is used by Iraq, Syria, and Yemen (and formerly Libya), the only difference being the presence (or absence) of distinguishing national emblems in the white band.
The development of the modern Egyptian flag was determined first by the Muhammad Ali Dynasty, under whom Egypt was united with Sudan, and later by the rise of Arab nationalism.
When Muhammad Ali unsuccessfully seized power in Egypt, the country was officially a province of the Ottoman Empire. However, throughout his reign, and that of his sons and grandsons, Egypt enjoyed virtual independence as a Khedivate. To signify his autonomy from the Ottoman Porte, Muhammad Ali introduced a new Egyptian flag of three white crescents and three stars on a red field. It has been suggested that this was to symbolize the victory of his armies in three continents (Africa, Asia, and Europe), and his own sovereignty over Egypt, Sudan, and Hejaz. The similarity with the flag of the Ottoman Empire was deliberate, as Muhammad Ali harbored grandiose ambitions of deposing the Ottoman dynasty, and seizing the sultanic throne himself.
Egypt retained this flag even after formal Ottoman sovereignty was terminated in 1914, when Egypt was declared to be a sultanate, and a British protectorate. After the Urabi Revolt in 1882, British forces occupied the country, igniting ever greater nationalist resentment. This reached a peak in the Revolution of 1919, when both the red flag introduced by Muhammad Ali, and a special green banner bearing a crescent and cross were used in protests against the British (the latter symbolizing that both Egypt's Muslim and Christian communities supported the nationalist movement against the occupation).
In 1922, Britain agreed to formally recognize Egyptian independence, but only on the condition that the Sultan of Egypt, Fuad I, change his title to King. Upon so doing, the now King Fuad issued a Royal Decree formally adopting a new national flag of a white crescent with three white stars on a green background in it. The three stars symbolized the three component territories of the Kingdom, namely Egypt, Nubia, and Sudan. whilst the green signifies the agricultural nature of the country, other sources suggest that it symbolized the predominant religion of the country, Islam. It has also been suggested that the three stars represented the three religious communities of the country: Muslims, Christians and Jews. This lasted until 1953.
Following the Revolution of 1952, the Free Officers retained the flag of the Kingdom, but also introduced the Arab Liberation flag of red, white, and black horizontal bands, with the emblem of the Revolution, the Eagle of Saladin, in the center band. This earlier version of the eagle differs somewhat from the one later adopted. Even when the Kingdom was formally abolished by the declaration of the Republic on July 18, 1953, the flag of the Kingdom remained in official use until the formation of the United Arab Republic in 1958.
In 1958, Egypt and Syria united as the United Arab Republic (U.A.R.) and adopted a national flag based on the Arab Liberation flag, with two green stars (representing the two countries of the union) replacing the Eagle of Saladin in the white band. A modified version of the Eagle of Saladin was adopted as the U.A.R.'s coat of arms. (Up until 1972)
Though Syria withdrew from the U.A.R. in 1961, Egypt continued to use the official name of the United Arab Republic until 1971, when the country was renamed officially as the Arab Republic of Egypt. In 1972, when Egypt formed the Federation of Arab Republics along with Syria, and Libya, the U.A.R. flag (whose design Syria would reuse for their own flag, eight years later) was replaced by a common flag for the Federation, once again based on the Arab Liberation flag. The two green stars in the white band were replaced by the Hawk of Qureish, which had been the coat of arms of Syria prior to the formation of the U.A.R. in 1958. The Hawk of Qureish was also adopted as the Federation's coat of arms. The shade of red used in the red band was lightened slightly. (Up until 1984)
Whilst the Federation of Arab Republic was dissolved in 1977, Egypt retained the Federation's flag until October 4, 1984, when the black Hawk of Qureish was replaced in the white band (and on the coat of arms) by the Eagle of Saladin (the 1958 version as opposed to the 1952 version). In addition, the shade of red in the red band was restored to the slightly darker shade of the red band in the pre-Federation flag, and has remained as such to the present day.
The flag is hoisted on all Egyptian governmental buildings on Fridays, national holidays, the opening session of the People's Assembly, and any other occasions as determined by the Minister of the Interior. The flag is hoisted daily on border posts, customs buildings, Egyptian consulates and embassies overseas on Revolution Day (July 23), and other national holidays, as well as during the visit of the Egyptian President to the country hosting the diplomatic mission. Abusing the flag in any way is a criminal offense and is punishable under law as it implies contempt of the power of the state. Penal provisions also govern abuse of foreign flags or national emblems of other countries.
Source: Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Egypt
This work is released under CC 3.0 BY-SA - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Saturday, August 25, 2012
The List 2: Proof of Bullies on Goodreads
So here are the bullies for all of you to see. People who have attacked me and continue to do so by rating and reviewing my books without even reading them. You can find them on Goodreads and proof that not only are these people bullies, but you can’t trust them to give you a fair evaluation of a book. Please note, none of these people who have rated my books and reviewed them that are listed on this post (or the link provided below) have even bothered to read the books. They just hate me because they are haters. And bullies. And not the brightest bulbs in the house.
Let’s start with “tough guy” ARCHER - who placed my books in a shelf he created called ‘do not read’. How would he know? First of all, he has never read any of my books and secondly, does he even know how to read? (Okay, that was a cheap shot, but not as cheap as he is in the intelligence department) Okay, another cheap shot.
Moving on ….
STEPHANIE SINCLAIR has placed my books in a shelf she created called ‘yeah-aint-gonna-happen’. At least she isn’t trying to pretend that she read it, just making it publicly obvious that she is a hater and a bully. Sweet. But again, someone who has not read any of my books so, why rate and review, right? Oh, wait, that’s right, she’s a bully. That’s a bully’s job.
OCEANA NIGHTFERN says - “Told you STGRB were a bunch of immature authors. And liars too.” … Obviously, she is smart, considering that I do not belong to STGRB website. She also marked it as ’non-merci’.
ADE chimed in with this: “Meh. One of my best friends told me to read this book, something I sorely regret. She thought it was a piece of literary genius, but then again, she thinks Stephanie Meyer is the new Shakespeare. Why I listened to her? I do not know. What I DO know is that I Hated this book. Never Ever EVER again. I'd say maybe it's just this book, and i'd like Bryant's other books, but I really don't want to take the chance.” - Now obviously, she never did read the book, but I do like how she TRIES to make everyone think that she did. Kind of clever actually. And you should see her really, really long book shelve title she made especially for me. (It’s really long)
EBONY marked it as ‘never-in-a-million-years’. She didn’t say a thing about a million and one years though. So there is hope.
TERESA - marked it as ‘book-to-read’ then cleverly remarked beneath it, “Not. Again” - She never read it the first time. Could someone please tell her to not read it again, you have to at least read it once. Just saying.
RENAE - black-listed it. Then requested people to see the comments everybody else left behind.
JOHN EGBERT - (Not to be confused with Englebert Humperdink) - went one step further than Ebony and marked it, ‘never-in-a-gazillion-years’. Then added “Goddamnit Carroll”
RENA RUADH - marked it as ‘I-refuse-to-read’ - Her loss I guess.
ABBYSHIRE - had a nice thing to say, she marked it as ‘crazy-shit-authors-to-avoid’. I should mark her as ‘crazy-shit-idiot-to-laugh-at’. (Cheap shot)
REBECCA BARQUERO also joined in the fray. Here are some other names of people who have rated one or more of my books … but never did read any of them. So when you see the ratings of my books and these hateful reviews and comments, know this, none of these people ever read my work. They are just bullies and haters and people I would think that any decent human being would want to stay clear of on Goodreads and … in life. You can go to my Goodreads books and check out the reviews. This is where you will find these mean and hateful people.
NICOLE (Nicole is also known as Jude Henderson or should I say, Elsa Hernandez) She is the girl responsible for all of this. She is the who organized the attack against me. Now, this “nicole” simply rated it one star. The funny thing is, “nicole” was th eone who actually posted all the quotes from my “Children of the Flower Power” because she loved it so much. (You be the judge on this one)
VIOLETTE … ALICE (Rated it a one star and never read it) … WILLAFUL … KALA … LANI … MARISSA … LIZZY … ANNIE … SUZANNE … CHRISTINA (A READER OF FICTIONS) … LISA … EDERYN EDERYN … ADELE DAWN … TRACY GUINTHER … MINTEA … JESSE “COUNTESS OF COCOA” APHRIDON … LIZ.
JENNYJEN - says “Not for me due to reviews”. This is what my lawyer says is proof of “damages” caused by this bullying.
KIMBERLY KINRADE … MEGAN CURD (Rated it one star, never read it)
CRYSTAL STARR LIGHT … AMANDA THE BOOK SLAYER … LISBETH AVERY
The list goes on and on for like 12 pages. I will leave the link to it and you guys can check it out. Take a real good look at all the names. They are the names (and in some cases, faces) of internet terrorists and bullies and haters that I have spoken about in the past. Don’t take my word for it, see for yourself.
The only reason I post this is to show that it is still going on, (this bullying of me) and that Goodreads and its staff endorses it. And to let non-Goodreads members who come to my blog know that the ratings you see on my books and many of the reviews are lies and a result of bullying. So, now you know not to pay any attention to it. And to show a few people who have emailed me, and others who might email me about it and think that it isn't really going on, that it is really going on and this is the proof.
THE LINK - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11292672-children-of-the-flower-power#other_reviews
Let’s start with “tough guy” ARCHER - who placed my books in a shelf he created called ‘do not read’. How would he know? First of all, he has never read any of my books and secondly, does he even know how to read? (Okay, that was a cheap shot, but not as cheap as he is in the intelligence department) Okay, another cheap shot.
Moving on ….
STEPHANIE SINCLAIR has placed my books in a shelf she created called ‘yeah-aint-gonna-happen’. At least she isn’t trying to pretend that she read it, just making it publicly obvious that she is a hater and a bully. Sweet. But again, someone who has not read any of my books so, why rate and review, right? Oh, wait, that’s right, she’s a bully. That’s a bully’s job.
OCEANA NIGHTFERN says - “Told you STGRB were a bunch of immature authors. And liars too.” … Obviously, she is smart, considering that I do not belong to STGRB website. She also marked it as ’non-merci’.
ADE chimed in with this: “Meh. One of my best friends told me to read this book, something I sorely regret. She thought it was a piece of literary genius, but then again, she thinks Stephanie Meyer is the new Shakespeare. Why I listened to her? I do not know. What I DO know is that I Hated this book. Never Ever EVER again. I'd say maybe it's just this book, and i'd like Bryant's other books, but I really don't want to take the chance.” - Now obviously, she never did read the book, but I do like how she TRIES to make everyone think that she did. Kind of clever actually. And you should see her really, really long book shelve title she made especially for me. (It’s really long)
EBONY marked it as ‘never-in-a-million-years’. She didn’t say a thing about a million and one years though. So there is hope.
TERESA - marked it as ‘book-to-read’ then cleverly remarked beneath it, “Not. Again” - She never read it the first time. Could someone please tell her to not read it again, you have to at least read it once. Just saying.
RENAE - black-listed it. Then requested people to see the comments everybody else left behind.
JOHN EGBERT - (Not to be confused with Englebert Humperdink) - went one step further than Ebony and marked it, ‘never-in-a-gazillion-years’. Then added “Goddamnit Carroll”
RENA RUADH - marked it as ‘I-refuse-to-read’ - Her loss I guess.
ABBYSHIRE - had a nice thing to say, she marked it as ‘crazy-shit-authors-to-avoid’. I should mark her as ‘crazy-shit-idiot-to-laugh-at’. (Cheap shot)
REBECCA BARQUERO also joined in the fray. Here are some other names of people who have rated one or more of my books … but never did read any of them. So when you see the ratings of my books and these hateful reviews and comments, know this, none of these people ever read my work. They are just bullies and haters and people I would think that any decent human being would want to stay clear of on Goodreads and … in life. You can go to my Goodreads books and check out the reviews. This is where you will find these mean and hateful people.
NICOLE (Nicole is also known as Jude Henderson or should I say, Elsa Hernandez) She is the girl responsible for all of this. She is the who organized the attack against me. Now, this “nicole” simply rated it one star. The funny thing is, “nicole” was th eone who actually posted all the quotes from my “Children of the Flower Power” because she loved it so much. (You be the judge on this one)
VIOLETTE … ALICE (Rated it a one star and never read it) … WILLAFUL … KALA … LANI … MARISSA … LIZZY … ANNIE … SUZANNE … CHRISTINA (A READER OF FICTIONS) … LISA … EDERYN EDERYN … ADELE DAWN … TRACY GUINTHER … MINTEA … JESSE “COUNTESS OF COCOA” APHRIDON … LIZ.
JENNYJEN - says “Not for me due to reviews”. This is what my lawyer says is proof of “damages” caused by this bullying.
KIMBERLY KINRADE … MEGAN CURD (Rated it one star, never read it)
CRYSTAL STARR LIGHT … AMANDA THE BOOK SLAYER … LISBETH AVERY
The list goes on and on for like 12 pages. I will leave the link to it and you guys can check it out. Take a real good look at all the names. They are the names (and in some cases, faces) of internet terrorists and bullies and haters that I have spoken about in the past. Don’t take my word for it, see for yourself.
The only reason I post this is to show that it is still going on, (this bullying of me) and that Goodreads and its staff endorses it. And to let non-Goodreads members who come to my blog know that the ratings you see on my books and many of the reviews are lies and a result of bullying. So, now you know not to pay any attention to it. And to show a few people who have emailed me, and others who might email me about it and think that it isn't really going on, that it is really going on and this is the proof.
THE LINK - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11292672-children-of-the-flower-power#other_reviews
A short history about flags.
In honor of my new segment about the history of flags, I am going to post this introduction to flags, and share with you a brief history about flags and why we have them.
A flag is usually a piece of fabric with a distinctive design that is usually rectangular and used as a symbol, as a signaling device, or decoration. The term flag is also used to refer to the graphic design employed by a flag, or to its depiction in another medium. The first flags were used to assist military coordination on battlefields, and flags have since evolved into a general tool for rudimentary signaling and identification, especially in environments where communication is similarly challenging (such as the maritime environment where semaphore is used). National flags are potent patriotic symbols with varied wide-ranging interpretations, often including strong military associations due to their original and ongoing military uses. Flags are also used in messaging, advertising, or for other decorative purposes. The study of flags is known as vexillology, from the Latin vexillum meaning flag or banner.
In antiquity, field signs or standards were used in warfare that can be categorized as vexilloid or “flag-like“. Examples include the Achaemenid battle standard Derafsh Kaviani, and the standards of the Roman legions such as the eagle of Augustus Caesar’s Xth legion, or the dragon standard of the Sarmatians; the latter was let fly freely in the wind, carried by a horseman, but judging from depictions it was more similar to an elongated dragon kite than to a simple flag.
During the High Middle Ages flags came to be used primarily as a heraldic device in battle, allowing more easily to identify a knight than only from the heraldic device painted on the shield. Already during the high medieval period, and increasingly during the Late Middle Ages, city states and communes such as those of the Old Swiss Confederacy also began to use flags as field signs. Regimental flags for individual units became commonplace during the Early Modern period. During the peak of the age of sail, beginning in the early 17th century, it has been customary (and later a legal requirement) for ships to carry flags designating their nationality; these flags eventually evolved into the national flags and maritime flags of today. Flags also became the preferred means of communications at sea, resulting in various systems of flag signals. Use of flags outside of military or naval context begins only with the rise of nationalist sentiment by the end of the 18th century; the earliest national flags date to that period, and during the 19th century it became common for every sovereign state to introduce a national flag.
SOURCE: Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag
This work is released under CC 3.0 BY-SA - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
A flag is usually a piece of fabric with a distinctive design that is usually rectangular and used as a symbol, as a signaling device, or decoration. The term flag is also used to refer to the graphic design employed by a flag, or to its depiction in another medium. The first flags were used to assist military coordination on battlefields, and flags have since evolved into a general tool for rudimentary signaling and identification, especially in environments where communication is similarly challenging (such as the maritime environment where semaphore is used). National flags are potent patriotic symbols with varied wide-ranging interpretations, often including strong military associations due to their original and ongoing military uses. Flags are also used in messaging, advertising, or for other decorative purposes. The study of flags is known as vexillology, from the Latin vexillum meaning flag or banner.
In antiquity, field signs or standards were used in warfare that can be categorized as vexilloid or “flag-like“. Examples include the Achaemenid battle standard Derafsh Kaviani, and the standards of the Roman legions such as the eagle of Augustus Caesar’s Xth legion, or the dragon standard of the Sarmatians; the latter was let fly freely in the wind, carried by a horseman, but judging from depictions it was more similar to an elongated dragon kite than to a simple flag.
During the High Middle Ages flags came to be used primarily as a heraldic device in battle, allowing more easily to identify a knight than only from the heraldic device painted on the shield. Already during the high medieval period, and increasingly during the Late Middle Ages, city states and communes such as those of the Old Swiss Confederacy also began to use flags as field signs. Regimental flags for individual units became commonplace during the Early Modern period. During the peak of the age of sail, beginning in the early 17th century, it has been customary (and later a legal requirement) for ships to carry flags designating their nationality; these flags eventually evolved into the national flags and maritime flags of today. Flags also became the preferred means of communications at sea, resulting in various systems of flag signals. Use of flags outside of military or naval context begins only with the rise of nationalist sentiment by the end of the 18th century; the earliest national flags date to that period, and during the 19th century it became common for every sovereign state to introduce a national flag.
SOURCE: Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag
This work is released under CC 3.0 BY-SA - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Picture Page Sunday Suspended/Changed
Hello everyone,
I have decided to suspend, or rather, change Picture Page Sunday, due to a rash of posts on other blogs about copyright violations on photo's that have been popping up all over the net. I know, it sounds trivial, but I assure you, there is a real concern over it, and I just don't want to get caught up in it.
Now, I am not killing it for good, just going to make a few changes and or adjustments. Mostly, I am going to buy a camera and take some photo's of interesting things and post them on what I will call, Picture Page Monthly. This will eliminate any copyright violation on photo's. (Because I will be taking the pictures or designing them myself.)
I don't know when the first post of Picture Page Monthly will start, maybe October, however, in it's stead, I will be posting a new segment I call "Flags Of The World" that I think you will enjoy. I will post a flag of a country and reveal the history behind these flags of how they came to be what they are today. I guess you can say I have always wondered what was behind the design of flags and after watching the Olympic games, that curiosity got the better of me.
Anyhow, I think by making Picture Page more personal, they will be just as enjoyed as the old Picture Pages. I hope so anyway. So, I will start working on that and who knows, maybe I will have something to post before October. We'll see. I also hope you enjoy "Flags Of The World" or as I will probably call the posts when they are made, "Flag Day". Each Sunday will mark a new flag, a new country, and the history behind it.
I apologize to all, but hope you can understand. Besides, I have always wanted to do a little photography so maybe this will be the start of a new and fascinating hobby. Always look on the brighter side of life.
Peace and love to all.
I have decided to suspend, or rather, change Picture Page Sunday, due to a rash of posts on other blogs about copyright violations on photo's that have been popping up all over the net. I know, it sounds trivial, but I assure you, there is a real concern over it, and I just don't want to get caught up in it.
Now, I am not killing it for good, just going to make a few changes and or adjustments. Mostly, I am going to buy a camera and take some photo's of interesting things and post them on what I will call, Picture Page Monthly. This will eliminate any copyright violation on photo's. (Because I will be taking the pictures or designing them myself.)
I don't know when the first post of Picture Page Monthly will start, maybe October, however, in it's stead, I will be posting a new segment I call "Flags Of The World" that I think you will enjoy. I will post a flag of a country and reveal the history behind these flags of how they came to be what they are today. I guess you can say I have always wondered what was behind the design of flags and after watching the Olympic games, that curiosity got the better of me.
Anyhow, I think by making Picture Page more personal, they will be just as enjoyed as the old Picture Pages. I hope so anyway. So, I will start working on that and who knows, maybe I will have something to post before October. We'll see. I also hope you enjoy "Flags Of The World" or as I will probably call the posts when they are made, "Flag Day". Each Sunday will mark a new flag, a new country, and the history behind it.
I apologize to all, but hope you can understand. Besides, I have always wanted to do a little photography so maybe this will be the start of a new and fascinating hobby. Always look on the brighter side of life.
Peace and love to all.
Friday, August 24, 2012
The Cat
THE CAT - By Carroll Bryant
They're watching with the eyes of a corpse
Waiting to see how I do it
Eternity is forever a long time
I can pull it off
But all will die before I prove it
If you want to live on and on, the voices say
Repeat after me, and say it with belief ... conviction!
I do, I do ... through me and be like you
I do, I do ... and live in captivity
I do, I do ... through me to be like you
I do, I do ... and live eternity without love
They roam around, but invisible
Knowing all too well that I can see them
Their words can not be heard ... what'd I hear?
But I can pull the feat
And all must die before I save them
If you want to live on and on, the voices say
Repeat after me, and say it with belief ... conviction!
I do, I do ... through me and be like you
I do, I do ... and live in captivity
I do, I do ... through me to be like you
I do, I do ... and live eternity without love
I spoke the evil rhyme
Drank the magic liquid wine
Opened my gates of plea
Just to witness all I see
I crossed the Holy line
To shake hands with pure devine
God was on my mind
God was on my side
Right here beside me
They whisper with the tongue of the deceased
Telling lies among each other's presence
But I can fool a fox, and slither like a snake
I elude their trap because I am where it's at
The cat!
If you want to live on and on, the voices say
Repeat after me, and say it with belief ... conviction!
I do, I do ... through me and be like you
I do, I do ... and live in captivity
I do, I do ... through me to be like you
I do, I do ... and live eternity without love
I do!
They're watching with the eyes of a corpse
Waiting to see how I do it
Eternity is forever a long time
I can pull it off
But all will die before I prove it
If you want to live on and on, the voices say
Repeat after me, and say it with belief ... conviction!
I do, I do ... through me and be like you
I do, I do ... and live in captivity
I do, I do ... through me to be like you
I do, I do ... and live eternity without love
They roam around, but invisible
Knowing all too well that I can see them
Their words can not be heard ... what'd I hear?
But I can pull the feat
And all must die before I save them
If you want to live on and on, the voices say
Repeat after me, and say it with belief ... conviction!
I do, I do ... through me and be like you
I do, I do ... and live in captivity
I do, I do ... through me to be like you
I do, I do ... and live eternity without love
I spoke the evil rhyme
Drank the magic liquid wine
Opened my gates of plea
Just to witness all I see
I crossed the Holy line
To shake hands with pure devine
God was on my mind
God was on my side
Right here beside me
They whisper with the tongue of the deceased
Telling lies among each other's presence
But I can fool a fox, and slither like a snake
I elude their trap because I am where it's at
The cat!
If you want to live on and on, the voices say
Repeat after me, and say it with belief ... conviction!
I do, I do ... through me and be like you
I do, I do ... and live in captivity
I do, I do ... through me to be like you
I do, I do ... and live eternity without love
I do!
UFO Files: Enoch
Enoch (Hebrew: חֲנוֹךְ ) (Arabic: : إدريس 'Idrīs) is a character that appears in the Book of Genesis and a figure in the Generations of Adam. Enoch is described as the greatx4 grandson of Adam (through Seth) (Genesis 5:3-18), the son of Jared, the father of Methuselah, and the great-grandfather of Noah. The text reads - uniquely in the Generations - that Enoch “walked with God: and he was not; for God took him“, (Genesis 5:22-29) suggesting he did not experience the mortal death ascribed to Adam's other descendants. Despite the brief descriptions of him, Enoch is one of the main two focal points for much of the 1st millennium BC Jewish mysticism, notably in the Book of Enoch. Additionally, Enoch is important in some Christian denominations: He is commemorated as one of the Holy Forefathers in the Calendar of Saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Armenian Catholic Church on July 26. He also features in the Latter Day Saint movement.
Enoch appears in Genesis as the seventh of the ten pre - Deluge Patriarchs. Genesis claims that each of the pre - Flood Patriarchs lives for several centuries, has a son, lives more centuries, and then dies. The exception is Enoch, who does not experience death “for God took him.” Furthermore, Genesis 5:22-29 states that Enoch lived 365 years which is extremely short in the context of his peers.
The brief account of Enoch in Genesis 5 ends with the note that he “was not” and that “God took him.” The question of what became of Enoch puzzled later generations. The 3rd century translators who produced the Greek Septuagint rendered the phrase “God took him” with the Greek verb metatithemi (μετατίθημι) meaning moving from one place to another. The Sirach 44:16, from about the same period, states that “Enoch pleased God and was translated into paradise that he may give repentance to the nations.” The Greek word used here for paradise, 'paradeisos' (παραδεισος), was derived from an ancient Persian word meaning “enclosed garden“, and was used in the Septuagint to describe the Garden of Eden. Later, however, the term became synonymous for heaven, as is the case here.
Three extensive apocryphal works are attributed to Enoch. 1st Book of Enoch, or simply the Book of Enoch, an apocryphal book in the Ethiopic Bible that is usually dated between the third century BC and the first century AD. 2nd Book of Enoch, an apocryphal book in the Old Slavonic Bible usually dated to the first century AD. And the 3rd Book of Enoch, a Kabbalistic Rabbinic text in Hebrew usually dated to the fifth century AD. These recount how Enoch is taken up to Heaven and is appointed guardian of all the celestial treasures, chief of the archangels, and the immediate attendant on God’s throne. He is subsequently taught all secrets and mysteries and, with all the angels at his back, fulfils of his own accord whatever comes out of the mouth of God, executing His decrees. Much esoteric literature like the 3rd Book of Enoch identifies Enoch as the Metatron, the angel which communicates God's word. In consequence, Enoch was seen, by this literature, and the Rabbinic kabbala of Jewish mysticism, as having been the one which communicated God's revelation to Moses, in particular, the dictator of the Book of Jubilees.
In classical Rabbinical literature, there are divergent opinions of Enoch. After Christianity and Judaism had separated, the prevailing view regarding Enoch was that of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, which thought of Enoch as a pious man, taken to Heaven, and receiving the title of Safra rabba (Great scribe). However, while Christianity was separating from Judaism, the Jewish view of Enoch was he was the only pious man of his time and was taken away before he would become corrupted. According to Rashi (from Genesis Rabba), “Enoch was a righteous man, but he could easily be swayed to return to do evil. Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, hastened and took him away and caused him to die before his time. For this reason, Scripture changed (the wording) in (the account of) his demise and wrote, ‘and he was no longer’ in the world to complete his years.” Among the minor Midrashim, esoteric attributes of Enoch are expanded upon. In the Sefer Hekalot, Rabbi Ishmael is described as having visited the 7th Heaven, where he meets Enoch, who claims that earth had, in his time, been corrupted by the demons Shammazai, and Azazel, and so Enoch was taken to Heaven to prove that God was not cruel. Similar traditions are recorded in Sirach. Later elaborations of this interpretation treated Enoch as having been a pious ascetic, who, called to mix with others, preached repentance, and gathered (despite the small number of people on Earth) a vast collection of disciples, to the extent that he was proclaimed king. Under his wisdom, peace is said to have reigned on earth, to the extent that he is summoned to Heaven to rule over the sons of God. In a parallel with Elijah, in sight of a vast crowd begging him to stay, he ascends to Heaven on a horse. Enoch is often confused with Enos. However, Enos is grandson to Adam (Genesis 5:5-6), and great-great-grandfather of Enoch (Genesis 5:9-18).
The New Testament contains three references to Enoch. The first is a brief mention in Luke's genealogy of the ancestors of Jesus (Luke 3:37).The second mention is where the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews writes, “By faith Enoch was transferred, that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had transferred him; for before his transference he had the witness that he had pleased God well.” (Hebrews 11:5).The third mention is in the Epistle of Jude (1:14-15) where the author attributes to “Enoch, the Seventh from Adam” a passage unknown in the Old Testament. The quotation is believed by most modern scholars to be taken from 1 Enoch 1:9 which exists in Greek, in Ethiopic, as part of the Ethiopian Orthodox canon, and also in Aramaic among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Though the same scholars recognize that 1 Enoch 1:9 itself is a midrash of the words of Moses “he came from the ten thousands of holy ones” from Deuteronomy 33:2. The introductory phrase “Enoch, the Seventh from Adam” is also found in 1 Enoch (1 En. 60:8), though not in the Old Testament. In the New Testament this Enoch prophesies “to“ ungodly men, that God shall come with His holy ones to judge and convict them (Jude 1:14-15).
Early Christianity contains various traditions concerning the “translation” of Enoch.
Regarding the quotation in Jude, most of early Christianity considered it an independent quotation pre-dating the flood. Regarding the Book of Enoch itself Origen, Jerome and Augustin mention it, but as of no authority. Justin, Athenagoras, Irenaeus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Lactantius, and others borrowed an opinion out of this book of Enoch, that the angels had connection with the daughters of men, of whom they had offspring (‘the giants of the past‘). Tertullian, in several places, speaks of this book with esteem; and would persuade us, that it was preserved by Noah during the deluge. According to the Figurists (a group of Jesuit missionaries mainly led by Joachim Bouvet into China at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century and based on ideas of Matteo Ricci 1552 to 1610), Fu Xi, in China's ancient history is actually Enoch.
Enoch is not counted as a saint in Roman Catholic tradition, though Enoch has a saints day, July 26, in the Armenian Apostolic Church. The “St. Enoch” in the place name St. Enoch's Square, Glasgow, is a corruption from the site of a medieval chapel to Saint Teneu, the legendary mother of Saint Mungo, and unconnected with Enoch. Enoch is revered in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and the Enochic texts Jubilees and 1 Enoch regarded as the 13th and 14th books, respectively, of the Tewahedo Old Testament canon. Most churches, including the Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Protestant churches, do not accept the books.
Some Evangelical commentators consider Enoch to be one of the Two Witnesses in the Book of Revelation due to the fact that he did not die according to Genesis 5:24. Two televangelists holding this view, for example, are Pastor John Hagee of Christians for Israel and Hebrew Roots Bible teacher, Perry Stone.
Among the Latter Day Saint movement and particularly in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Enoch is viewed as having founded an exceptionally righteous city, named Zion, in the midst of an otherwise wicked world. This view is encountered in the Mormon scriptures, the Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrine and Covenants, which states that not only Enoch, but the entire peoples of the city of Zion, were “taken off this earth without death”, because of their piety. (Zion is defined as “the pure in heart” and this city of Zion will return to the earth at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ) The Doctrine and Covenants further states that Enoch prophesied that one of his descendants, Noah, and his family, would survive a Great Flood and thus carry on the human race and preserve the Gospel. The Book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price has several chapters that give an account of Enoch's preaching, visions and conversations with God. In these same chapters are details concerning the wars, violence and natural disasters in Enoch's day, and notable miracles performed by Enoch. The Book of Moses is itself an excerpt from Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible, which is published in full, complete with these chapters concerning Enoch, by Community of Christ, as the Holy Scriptures/Inspired Version of the Bible, where it appears as part of the Book of Genesis. D&C 104:24 (CofC) / 107:48-49 (LDS) states that Adam ordained Enoch to the higher priesthood (now called the Melchizedek, after the great high priest) at age 25, that he was 65 when Adam blessed him, and he lived 365 years after that until he was translated, so making him 430 years old when that occurred.
Additionally in LDS theology, Enoch is implied to be the scribe who recorded Adam’s blessings and prophecies at Adam-ondi-Ahman, as recorded in D&C 107:53-57 (LDS) / D&C 104:29b (CofC).
In the Quran, Enoch is sometimes identified with Idris, as for example by the History of Al-Tabari and the Meadows of Gold. The Quran contains two references to Idris; in Surah Al-Anbiya (The Prophets) verse number 85, and in Surah Maryam (Mary) verses 56-57. (The Prophets, 21:85): “And the same blessing was bestowed upon Ismail and Idris and Zul-Kifl, because they all practized fortitude.” (Mary 19:56 - 57) : “And remember Idris in the Book; he was indeed very truthful, a Prophet. And We lifted him to a lofty station“. Idris is closely linked in Muslim tradition with the origin of writing and other technical arts of civilization, including the study of astronomical phenomena, both of which Enoch is credited with in the Testament of Abraham . Nonetheless, even aside from the identification of Idris and Enoch, many Muslims still honor Enoch as one of the earliest prophets, regardless of whether they equate him with Idris or not. Thus, views on Enoch are divided into two groups: The first believes that Enoch and Idris are one and the same. The second believes that Enoch and Idris are two different prophets.
It is widely believed among ancient astronaut theorists that Enoch, like so many other biblical figures, was a space traveler and the leader of the Anunnaki. That Enoch is responsible for the perseverance of man as well as a teacher, educating him, and giving him the knowledge he sought while a slave to the master race to mine for gold and other earthly minerals. Where this master race is from is still open for debate. Some say the Sirius galaxy, while others claim the Sagittarius galaxy. The planet we now call Mars, was also being mined of resources.
Source: Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enoch
This work is released under CC 3.0 BY-SA - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Enoch appears in Genesis as the seventh of the ten pre - Deluge Patriarchs. Genesis claims that each of the pre - Flood Patriarchs lives for several centuries, has a son, lives more centuries, and then dies. The exception is Enoch, who does not experience death “for God took him.” Furthermore, Genesis 5:22-29 states that Enoch lived 365 years which is extremely short in the context of his peers.
The brief account of Enoch in Genesis 5 ends with the note that he “was not” and that “God took him.” The question of what became of Enoch puzzled later generations. The 3rd century translators who produced the Greek Septuagint rendered the phrase “God took him” with the Greek verb metatithemi (μετατίθημι) meaning moving from one place to another. The Sirach 44:16, from about the same period, states that “Enoch pleased God and was translated into paradise that he may give repentance to the nations.” The Greek word used here for paradise, 'paradeisos' (παραδεισος), was derived from an ancient Persian word meaning “enclosed garden“, and was used in the Septuagint to describe the Garden of Eden. Later, however, the term became synonymous for heaven, as is the case here.
Three extensive apocryphal works are attributed to Enoch. 1st Book of Enoch, or simply the Book of Enoch, an apocryphal book in the Ethiopic Bible that is usually dated between the third century BC and the first century AD. 2nd Book of Enoch, an apocryphal book in the Old Slavonic Bible usually dated to the first century AD. And the 3rd Book of Enoch, a Kabbalistic Rabbinic text in Hebrew usually dated to the fifth century AD. These recount how Enoch is taken up to Heaven and is appointed guardian of all the celestial treasures, chief of the archangels, and the immediate attendant on God’s throne. He is subsequently taught all secrets and mysteries and, with all the angels at his back, fulfils of his own accord whatever comes out of the mouth of God, executing His decrees. Much esoteric literature like the 3rd Book of Enoch identifies Enoch as the Metatron, the angel which communicates God's word. In consequence, Enoch was seen, by this literature, and the Rabbinic kabbala of Jewish mysticism, as having been the one which communicated God's revelation to Moses, in particular, the dictator of the Book of Jubilees.
In classical Rabbinical literature, there are divergent opinions of Enoch. After Christianity and Judaism had separated, the prevailing view regarding Enoch was that of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, which thought of Enoch as a pious man, taken to Heaven, and receiving the title of Safra rabba (Great scribe). However, while Christianity was separating from Judaism, the Jewish view of Enoch was he was the only pious man of his time and was taken away before he would become corrupted. According to Rashi (from Genesis Rabba), “Enoch was a righteous man, but he could easily be swayed to return to do evil. Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, hastened and took him away and caused him to die before his time. For this reason, Scripture changed (the wording) in (the account of) his demise and wrote, ‘and he was no longer’ in the world to complete his years.” Among the minor Midrashim, esoteric attributes of Enoch are expanded upon. In the Sefer Hekalot, Rabbi Ishmael is described as having visited the 7th Heaven, where he meets Enoch, who claims that earth had, in his time, been corrupted by the demons Shammazai, and Azazel, and so Enoch was taken to Heaven to prove that God was not cruel. Similar traditions are recorded in Sirach. Later elaborations of this interpretation treated Enoch as having been a pious ascetic, who, called to mix with others, preached repentance, and gathered (despite the small number of people on Earth) a vast collection of disciples, to the extent that he was proclaimed king. Under his wisdom, peace is said to have reigned on earth, to the extent that he is summoned to Heaven to rule over the sons of God. In a parallel with Elijah, in sight of a vast crowd begging him to stay, he ascends to Heaven on a horse. Enoch is often confused with Enos. However, Enos is grandson to Adam (Genesis 5:5-6), and great-great-grandfather of Enoch (Genesis 5:9-18).
The New Testament contains three references to Enoch. The first is a brief mention in Luke's genealogy of the ancestors of Jesus (Luke 3:37).The second mention is where the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews writes, “By faith Enoch was transferred, that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had transferred him; for before his transference he had the witness that he had pleased God well.” (Hebrews 11:5).The third mention is in the Epistle of Jude (1:14-15) where the author attributes to “Enoch, the Seventh from Adam” a passage unknown in the Old Testament. The quotation is believed by most modern scholars to be taken from 1 Enoch 1:9 which exists in Greek, in Ethiopic, as part of the Ethiopian Orthodox canon, and also in Aramaic among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Though the same scholars recognize that 1 Enoch 1:9 itself is a midrash of the words of Moses “he came from the ten thousands of holy ones” from Deuteronomy 33:2. The introductory phrase “Enoch, the Seventh from Adam” is also found in 1 Enoch (1 En. 60:8), though not in the Old Testament. In the New Testament this Enoch prophesies “to“ ungodly men, that God shall come with His holy ones to judge and convict them (Jude 1:14-15).
Early Christianity contains various traditions concerning the “translation” of Enoch.
Regarding the quotation in Jude, most of early Christianity considered it an independent quotation pre-dating the flood. Regarding the Book of Enoch itself Origen, Jerome and Augustin mention it, but as of no authority. Justin, Athenagoras, Irenaeus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Lactantius, and others borrowed an opinion out of this book of Enoch, that the angels had connection with the daughters of men, of whom they had offspring (‘the giants of the past‘). Tertullian, in several places, speaks of this book with esteem; and would persuade us, that it was preserved by Noah during the deluge. According to the Figurists (a group of Jesuit missionaries mainly led by Joachim Bouvet into China at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century and based on ideas of Matteo Ricci 1552 to 1610), Fu Xi, in China's ancient history is actually Enoch.
Enoch is not counted as a saint in Roman Catholic tradition, though Enoch has a saints day, July 26, in the Armenian Apostolic Church. The “St. Enoch” in the place name St. Enoch's Square, Glasgow, is a corruption from the site of a medieval chapel to Saint Teneu, the legendary mother of Saint Mungo, and unconnected with Enoch. Enoch is revered in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and the Enochic texts Jubilees and 1 Enoch regarded as the 13th and 14th books, respectively, of the Tewahedo Old Testament canon. Most churches, including the Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Protestant churches, do not accept the books.
Some Evangelical commentators consider Enoch to be one of the Two Witnesses in the Book of Revelation due to the fact that he did not die according to Genesis 5:24. Two televangelists holding this view, for example, are Pastor John Hagee of Christians for Israel and Hebrew Roots Bible teacher, Perry Stone.
Among the Latter Day Saint movement and particularly in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Enoch is viewed as having founded an exceptionally righteous city, named Zion, in the midst of an otherwise wicked world. This view is encountered in the Mormon scriptures, the Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrine and Covenants, which states that not only Enoch, but the entire peoples of the city of Zion, were “taken off this earth without death”, because of their piety. (Zion is defined as “the pure in heart” and this city of Zion will return to the earth at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ) The Doctrine and Covenants further states that Enoch prophesied that one of his descendants, Noah, and his family, would survive a Great Flood and thus carry on the human race and preserve the Gospel. The Book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price has several chapters that give an account of Enoch's preaching, visions and conversations with God. In these same chapters are details concerning the wars, violence and natural disasters in Enoch's day, and notable miracles performed by Enoch. The Book of Moses is itself an excerpt from Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible, which is published in full, complete with these chapters concerning Enoch, by Community of Christ, as the Holy Scriptures/Inspired Version of the Bible, where it appears as part of the Book of Genesis. D&C 104:24 (CofC) / 107:48-49 (LDS) states that Adam ordained Enoch to the higher priesthood (now called the Melchizedek, after the great high priest) at age 25, that he was 65 when Adam blessed him, and he lived 365 years after that until he was translated, so making him 430 years old when that occurred.
Additionally in LDS theology, Enoch is implied to be the scribe who recorded Adam’s blessings and prophecies at Adam-ondi-Ahman, as recorded in D&C 107:53-57 (LDS) / D&C 104:29b (CofC).
In the Quran, Enoch is sometimes identified with Idris, as for example by the History of Al-Tabari and the Meadows of Gold. The Quran contains two references to Idris; in Surah Al-Anbiya (The Prophets) verse number 85, and in Surah Maryam (Mary) verses 56-57. (The Prophets, 21:85): “And the same blessing was bestowed upon Ismail and Idris and Zul-Kifl, because they all practized fortitude.” (Mary 19:56 - 57) : “And remember Idris in the Book; he was indeed very truthful, a Prophet. And We lifted him to a lofty station“. Idris is closely linked in Muslim tradition with the origin of writing and other technical arts of civilization, including the study of astronomical phenomena, both of which Enoch is credited with in the Testament of Abraham . Nonetheless, even aside from the identification of Idris and Enoch, many Muslims still honor Enoch as one of the earliest prophets, regardless of whether they equate him with Idris or not. Thus, views on Enoch are divided into two groups: The first believes that Enoch and Idris are one and the same. The second believes that Enoch and Idris are two different prophets.
It is widely believed among ancient astronaut theorists that Enoch, like so many other biblical figures, was a space traveler and the leader of the Anunnaki. That Enoch is responsible for the perseverance of man as well as a teacher, educating him, and giving him the knowledge he sought while a slave to the master race to mine for gold and other earthly minerals. Where this master race is from is still open for debate. Some say the Sirius galaxy, while others claim the Sagittarius galaxy. The planet we now call Mars, was also being mined of resources.
Source: Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enoch
This work is released under CC 3.0 BY-SA - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
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