Grant Brown Whenever I encounter anyone in a uniform--paramedic, police officer, fireman, military, etc. I will take the opportunity to thank them for their service. I'm the guy who prefers to run away from gunfire or a burning building, but those brave men and women run straight toward danger. John 15:13 reads, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." In my opinion, anyone willing to put his or her life at risk in order to provide a service to our community deserves to be treated with the utmost respect. I don't care how much they are paid--when asked to confront a homicidal maniac or go out into horrible weather conditions to assist an accident victim, they go to work and do the job most of us don't have the courage or stomach to perform. All too often these people are vilified and targeted by the very people they serve for doing what the community has asked them to do, and yet they continue to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. On the other hand, service professionals do at least receive a paycheck. The Bible talks about laying down your life for your friends, but what about putting yourself at risk for a total stranger? What if the person you're trying to save has a different skin color, one you've been taught not to trust and maybe even to hate? Only one word can describe a person who would run full speed at a vicious dog mauling a neighbor without hesitation, not even long enough to pick up something to use as a weapon in self defense, and the word is "hero." But even then, that word seems sort of … [Read more...]
The Jamaican national anthem
Jamaican national flag After writing about how impressed I was by Usain Bolt's show of respect for the U.S. national anthem, it dawned on me that I probably wouldn't recognize the Jamaican national anthem when I heard it. So I asked my search engine for the lyrics and was blown away by what I discovered. The Jamaican national anthem isn't merely a song. It's a beautiful, heartfelt prayer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIIhvOBQB_M Eternal Father, Bless our Land,Guard us with thy mighty hand,Keep us free from evil powers,Be our light through countless hours,To our leaders, great defender,Grant true wisdom from above,Justice, truth be ours forever,Jamaica, land we love,Jamaica, Jamaica, Jamaica, land we loveTeach us true respect for all,Stir response to duty’s call,Strengthen us the weak to cherish,Give us vision lest we perish,Knowledge send us Heavenly Father,Grant true wisdom from above,Justice, truth be ours forever,Jamaica, land we love,Jamaica, Jamaica, Jamaica, land we love It should come as no surprise that the author of that anthem was inspired by our Creator. From the looks of this picture, Jamaica could be mistaken for heaven on earth. … [Read more...]
Patriotism and the National Anthem
BEIJING, CHINA - AUGUST 27: Usain Bolt of Jamaica celebrates after winning gold in the Men's 200 metres final during day six of the 15th IAAF World Athletics Championships Beijing 2015 at Beijing National Stadium on August 27, 2015. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images for IAAF) Recently I promised to focus on "the bright side" of the news because of the constant onslaught of negative headlines. It's not as easy as it sounds. One of today's headlines at the Drudge Report promises to tell the story of a woman stealing a dog from a man in medical distress as paramedics worked to save his life. Who would do such a thing? More headlines scream that the president is a racist because he's said pretty much the exact same thing about Baltimore as the former major and current congressman (parts of the city are a rat-infested cesspool) because Trump has the wrong skin color: orange. Everything seems to be a controversy, even the first American flag created by anti-slavery Quaker Betsy Ross (because Colin Kaepernick said the flag she sewed was racist.) But I don't want to talk Colin Kaepernick because I don't agree with his politics, and the point is to look for the bright side of a story. For the same reason, I don't want to talk about Megan Rapinoe and her protests as a member of the U.S. Women's National Soccer team when the national anthem was played, even though her attention-seeking gesture upset me more than Kaepernick because Rapinoe represented our nation as a competitor but was allowed to disrespect its most powerful symbol, the flag. Since I can't … [Read more...]
Looking on the bright side
Bill Tush Ted Turner revolutionized the information world when he bought Channel 17, a local Atlanta television station, and started bouncing its signal off of a satellite so people everywhere could watch, and it quickly turned into the first cable "superstation," running content 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Before Turner forever changed the industry, the Big Three national networks (ranked in order of their marketshare) were CBS, NBC, and ABC. The three major networks all stopped offering content during the early morning hours and from around 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. every morning, only a test pattern was broadcast over the airways. Ted owned the rights to a lot of old movies and the Atlanta Braves, which meant he had a virtually unlimited supply of content. The FCC decreed that once Channel 17 evolved into a national network, Turner had to broadcast a news program in order to maintain the station's federal license. In a move of sheer genius, Ted didn't even try to go against the Walter Cronkite-style news anchors during the "normal" news hour from 6:00 p.m to 7:00 p.m. Instead, Ted hired a comedian named Bill Tush and offered the news at 3:00 a.m. Turner figured nobody was going to watch his station for the news, anyway, but at that hour of the morning, his SuperStation literally had no other competition, and Tush made it fun to watch the news. Some of his on-air stunts were hilarious and became legendary, as the video below demonstrates. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy8MTBxP7no Another brilliant and innovative move was when Turner began … [Read more...]
A slight change of plans
It's all good. Well, okay, it's only mostly good. There was that whole yellow jacket incident. The past 72 hours or so have been very interesting. Almost nothing has gone according to plan, but the best explanation for that is that I didn't really have a well-developed plan in the first place, just a convicted thought about needing to improve my productivity. For a guy who spends most of his time writing, I don't get nearly enough real work accomplished. I had the initial impulse to permanently delete my Facebook account primarily because of my own lack of discipline, as far as productive work is concerned. I announced this decision to the general public before discussing it with my wife, which rarely works out for the best because she's not as quick to jump to hasty conclusions. In case you haven't figured it out yet, she's the real brains in our family. Lisa's first concerns were the pictures of the grandkids our daughter posts on Facebook all the time. Didn't I still want to see them? She then asked, what about your high school English teacher and the friends you've made in Australia, and those connections you truly care about? She reminded me the problem with Facebook isn't the people as much as how I've been using the medium. I'll admit that I was more than a little surprised that her reaction wasn't anything but, "Thank God!" Changes had to be made, though, and changes have already occurred. Changes NEEDED to be made because I just can't spend the rest of my life arguing with idiots on Facebook. It doesn't produce income. Liberals and atheists tend to … [Read more...]
