Okay, my very first post was much too long. I admit it. I really got carried away. I tend to get long-winded when juggling words. But, I promise you from now on I will limit my posts to only a few paragraphs.
Is this short enough for you?
Harold Camping is the 89 year old fundamentalist radio preacher who predicted that the world would end on May 21, 2011. Apparently, the wannabe “Almighty” Camping got trumped by a higher power, because the world didn’t end on the day he said it would. There was no fire and brimstone rainstorm and no Rapture, just business as usual – hardships, escalating crime, immorality, war, man-made and natural disasters. The only things raised to high Heaven on Camping’s predicted Judgment Day were the prices of food, gas, and housing; leading many to believe that we are already living in hell on earth. As far as the knuckleheads who quit their jobs, sold their homes, and gave away all of their savings in anticipation of the May 21st Doomsday, well, what can I tell you? Lawyer up or seek counseling.
The octogenarian founder of the Family Radio station, whose nonprofit organization benefits from numerous donations from supporters, is the leader of a nondenominational Christian ministry that broadcasts out of Oakland, California. Many of his followers emptied their bank accounts to print huge Judgment Day ads predicting the end of the world on May 21st. Others gave Camping their entire estate. Such was the case of 79 year old Doris Schmitt, who died on May 2nd in her Queens, New York home. Schmitt left $250,000 out of her $300,000 inheritance to Camping’s ministry. “Holy hell!” was probably her family’s immediate reaction when they learned about that. Needless to say, they were not pleased.
It is no laughing matter that other tragic events surrounded Camping’s prediction of The End. His false prophecy had deadly consequences for Nastya Zachinova. The parents of the 14 year old girl blame Camping’s apocalyptic fear factor as the reason their daughter committed suicide on May 21st.
When Camping and his followers awakened on the 22nd to discover no change in the status quo, he admitted (ahem!) that he had – yet again – miscalculated The End. Knowing that people knew he had flubbed previous predictions about when the world would end, he gallantly refused to shift the blame for his latest blunder on Alzheimer or brain freeze. Instead he merely admitted to being “flabbergasted.” Oh, snap!
Trying to understand the mentality of people who commit blind loyalty to any individual or organization that leads them over a cliff is as mind-blowing as Sarah Palin’s convoluted explanation of Paul Revere’s famous midnight ride.
Camping is not the only one who has miscalculated Judgment Day. For centuries, there have been Doomsday prophets — from astrologers to religious leaders to soothsayers — prophesying the end of the world. In the meantime, Camping’s latest blotched prediction made him infamous on YouTube. Many of the videos are humorous, some are just plain silly, but a few had me laughing out loud. Check out YouTube.
Okay folks, this is . . . The End.
Some Baby Boomers may recall a few political extramarital affairs and cheating scandals that occurred in the 1960s and 70s, but it was nothing like the tidal wave of congressional bad boys washing ashore today.
In 1968, Tammy Wynette recorded the hit song Stand By Your Man. That popular tune has become an unofficial anthem for the wives (and some late wives) of adulterous politicians. Just to name a few on a list too long to print, there’s Silda and Eliot Spitzer, Elizabeth and John Edwards, Hillary and Bill Clinton, Dina Matos and Jim McGreevey, and Marie and Arnold Schwarzenegger. And the newest high profile political couple to win the Hot Dog Award is Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner.
Last month, when it was disclosed that Weiner – no kin to Oscar Mayer – posted a nude photo on his Twitter page he immediately went into denial and then lawyered-up.
That defensive play is as smooth as a 3-move checkmate and it begs a redundant and somewhat unrelated question, “If the accused maintains innocence, why settle out of court?”
Well, Weiner recently recanted his original story, and the fact that his wife was not at his side during his press conferences was as obvious as John Boehner’s year round tan.
Could it be that the wives of high profile men are growing tired of standing stone-faced beside their mate as he lies and sometimes cries his cheating heart out in front of television cameras? One can’t help but wonder whether the public apologies and display of apparent remorse of these men is to conceal their embarrassment, secure their marriage or protect their political career.
Regardless of whether the prominent husband’s affair is with another woman or with a man, when the media gets wind of the story it spells public humiliation for both spouses. Even as the offended wife stands dutifully by her man’s side at the press conference and appears to put on a brave face for the cameras, chances are that inwardly she is in emotional turmoil, visualizing the downward spiral of her marriage, and trying to remember where she put the Washingtonian’s list of the Top 25 Divorce Lawyers.
There is nothing wrong with a wife having her man’s back. But any woman whose husband has been unfaithful can certainly feel the pain of the wives of Capitol Hill whose husband’s infidelity funded a whispering campaign.
Congressman Weiner’s pregnant wife reportedly said that she plans to continue her marriage. Nevertheless, the fact that she was a no show at her husband’s press conferencebrought enthusiastic high-fives from women who are tired of seeing the string of mistreated wives put on a united front just to help their cheating husbands save face. Which other women did – or did not – stand by their man?
Baby Boomers who are history buffs will be captivated by the 
documentary Freedom Riders which aired on PBS on May 16 and 17th. The film based on a book by the same title, gives a heart-wrenching and downright disturbing look back at the segregated south in 1961, as it justly acknowledges the integrated groups of college students whose bus trips to Birmingham and Montgomery, Alabama, Jackson, Mississippi and other cities in the Deep South carried them to the front lines of the civil rights movement and helped end Jim Crow practices.
The Freedom Riders were trained to be non-violent and the young men and women were unprepared for the danger that awaited them once they arrived at the destination cities where they were threatened, degraded, savagely beaten and imprisoned by angry, racist mobs. Even viewers of the film who watched TV news coverage of civil rights protests decades ago may be moved to tears by some narratives in the film. Particularly disturbing is one female student’s graphic account of the examination of her private parts by a jail guard who dipped her gloved hand into what the student believed was Lysol before inserting her finger into the young girl’s cavity.
The film’s award winning director, Stanley Nelson, peppered black and white photographs with interviews featuring a number of the now aged Freedom Riders who were among the numerous students that traveled south on Greyhound and Trailway buses, some of which were disabled and firebombed by frenzied mobs. The haunting songs occasionally played over still shots intensify the viewer’s recollection of a period that many Americans would like to forget. One unsettling statement that exemplifies the mentality of the southern racists was, at one point, repeated off-camera by a faceless voice, “I’ve got to hate somebody.”
Freedom Riders gives earned recognition to people who were as instrumental, but perhaps not as widely acclaimed for affecting changes in the civil rights movement as were more notable personalities like Dr. King and Rosa Parks. The students, too, were heroes.
The film is difficult to watch but hard to turn off. It highlights a disturbing period in America, and should be viewed by all, especially today’s young African Americans who have little or no knowledge of their cultural history. It might just enlighten the minds of some of today’s wayward youths who think that being heroic means living the thug life.
The film runs nearly two hours and is currently available for free viewing in its entirety on PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/watch