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Born May 18, 1953; got saved at Truett Memorial BC in Hayesville, NC 1959. On rigged ballot which I did not rig got Most Intellectual class of 71, Gaffney High School. Furman Grad, Sociology major but it was little tougher than Auburn football players had Had three dates with beautiful women the summer of 1978. Did not marry any of em. Never married anybody cause what was available was undesirable and what was desirable was unaffordable. Unlucky in love as they say and even still it is sometimes heartbreaking. Had a Pakistani Jr. Davis Cupper on the Ropes the summer of 84, City Courts, Rome Georgia I've a baby sitter, watched peoples homes while they were away on Vacation. Freelance writer, local consultant, screenwriter, and the best damn substitute teacher of Floyd County Georgia in mid 80's according to an anonymous kid passed me on main street a few years later when I went back to get a sandwich at Schroeders. Had some good moments in Collinsville as well. Ask Casey Mattox at www.clsnet.org if he will be honest about it. I try my best to make it to Bridges BBQ in Shelby NC at least four times a year.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Lomax Recording 50th Anniversary in Fyffe, Alabama

The Lomax Recording now Housed in the Smithsonian was the chatter during the weekend of http://www.fasola.org/ singing over the weekend at Pine Grove, not far from the House.

Time Magazine put it in perspective in January 2008.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1704683,00.html

I'm hopin to make it up to Fyffe.

This will take you right to Corinth:

http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~mudws/united.html

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Caught in the Devil's Bargain

That's what Joni Mitchell said in the Woodstock Song.

We are stardust, we are golden;
We are part of the Devil's Garden.

Remarkable stories in NY Times over the last several days and two hour documentary last night on History Channel.

Some dismiss it all as "Boomer Supremacy".
But I join Yale's Harold Bloom and say it is all much more than that, a segueway from Cane Ridge to the election of Barack, Obama, American Citizen, as President of the United States.

Here are Joni's lyrics:


By the time we got to woodstock
We were half a million strongAnd everywhere there was song and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devils bargain
And weve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden


http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/joni+mitchell/woodstock_20075381.html

Monday, August 10, 2009

Magnificent Poem; a Supernal One

In the mid 30's of the 20th Century Kate McAlpin Grady took down the words of a grand old black patriarch on the Mississippi Delta and here is what she got.




What you gwine-do when
de riber overflow?
Set on my gallery, and watch her go.

How you qwine-a ack wid de water
in your room?
Sweep it out wid a sedge-straw broom.

What you gwine-a do when your
hawgs all drown?
Gwine-a wish I lived on higher ground.

What you gwine-a do when de
cow floats away?
Throw in after her a bale of hay.

How you gwine-a ack when
de cabin leaves?
Climb on de roof and straddle de eaves.

What you gwine-a do without
no shelter?
Float wid de current down to de delta.

How you gwine-a ack when it come
on night?
Trus' in God and hold on tight.

What you qwine-a do if your
stren'th give way?
Say, 'Howdy, Lawd, it's Judgment Day!

Friday, August 07, 2009

McNamara, Halberstam and Afghanistan

Tne New Republic has a fascinating piece about the passing of Robert McNamara and the lessons of David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest.
McNamara's passing was the subject of much discussion couple weeks ago, with Christian Century weighing in and Randall Balmer with a post religiondispatches.org among many others.
The article in New Republic covers the bases from Dean Rusk to Tom Hayden.
Here is the conclusion:

Even if you set aside all the other reasons the United States got into Vietnam--the gutting of expertise, the bullishness of the military, the miscalculation of the internal politics of the country, the anti-communist fervor, the roles of Rusk and Taylor--and focus solely on McNamara, the analogy with Obama is pretty difficult to sustain. "McNamara's ghost is hovering" over Afghanistan, Tom Hayden wrote in an obituary of the secretary. But wars aren't made by ghosts, and they don't proceed according to allegory. Kennedy chose as his defense secretary the president of a car company. Obama chose the sitting secretary of defense. Obama's brainiacs--people like Larry Summers and Tim Geithner and Peter Orszag--come from a different meritocracy than Kennedy's did. They are not brilliant generalists. For better or for worse, they are experts.

And the link to the full article:

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=8536793b-188a-483c-b745-c746e2236c19

Monday, August 03, 2009

Baptists celebrate 400 Years of Grand Tradition

http://www.abpnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4275&Itemid=53

This link above shows them at their best.
For me they opened up the world of George Truett, LD Johnson, Will Campbell, Stewart Newman, MLKing, Marshall Frady and Holly Hollman.
From there I explored on occasion as best I could Leszek Kolakowski and John Patrick Diggins.
Had email correspondence with Richard Marius, John Baugh, Dan Vestal, President Carter, Jody Powell, and almost had lunch with Mark Sanders and Bertis Downs.
Helped the Great Bill Moyers in 86 a little on his God and Politics Series.
Got to know Gus Niebuhr, Richard Kremer, Wayne Flynt which gave me the courage to pose a few questions on statewide TV to my friend Lowell Barron.
Even so I shoulda done much better by them and my Mom and Dad; better evidence of it than I have been; but like Will Campbell's grandson said to him, I now say
Thanks.

At its best it's a grand tradition.
My friends Ellen Rosenberg and Randall Balmer, outside the faith, will tell you so.

Congratulations Baptists of 400 years.
Here's to all of you who got dunked in the River, went under the water in the Grand Tradition of Grace Through Faith.
As Flannery O Connor's character was told when he came up on the other side:
You count now.