B. Haley
When you look at our country socially and economically, you can conclude that much been accomplished in America since Dr. King marched. I mean, we have an African American president, for heaven’s sake. What would he think of that?
Well, he might not think a whole lot if he looked far enough to find Ferguson, Missouri. In other words, our attitudes may not have gone as far as our policies have. Dan, one of our Catch readers, wrote me yesterday: Continue reading
Freed a lot of people
But it seems the good they die young
I just look around and he’s gone
– lyrics by Dick Holler, as sung by Dion
Today we commemorate the life of a good man. Not a perfect man — a good man. At a time when violent change was convulsing the nation, he stood for non-violence. At a time when hatred fed its caustic poison into the veins of a nation, he abstained. He preferred the milk of human kindness to the drunkenness of hate.
All he did was walk. Continue reading
We are not here.
I am sure the city of Manila, in the Philippines, is a lovely place, but if we were going to vacation halfway around the world, I can think of a lot of other places I would want to go first. However, an email that went out from Marti yesterday to everyone in her address book had us stranded in Manila after being robbed of everything but our passports, and in need of $1,950 to get home. Most of you knew we had been hacked, and some of you wrote me about it, but still you wonder, and it was nice to know you were concerned. Continue reading
There is a moving video on the Mighty Oaks Warrior Programs website about how their rehabilitation program is changing the lives of hundreds of American soldiers who suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress and Combat Trauma from current conflicts around the globe. The program, headed up by Chad Robichaux, one of our guests on BlogTalkRadio, is helping troubled men and women discover a new life purpose through Christ. One such veteran tells his story in this video about how he came back from Iraq and found out his wife had cheated on him, so then, inflamed with hatred, he got into a car crash, lost a leg and came inches from taking his life when he came to the six-day Mighty Oaks Warriors camp and found a reason for his life. Continue reading
You’re old enough to kill, but not for votin’
You don’t believe in war, but what’s that gun you’re totin’?
And even the Jordan river has bodies floatin’
And you tell me over and over and over again, my friend
You don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction?
– Barry McGuire
Tim Lickness teaching Sunday School at Marine Corp Recruiting Center
If you missed our BlogTalkRadio show last night, you’re in luck. You can hear it on demand by clicking on the picture here after you read today’s Catch. I can say, after doing over 50 episodes of BlogTalkRadio, this one went by faster than any other. I didn’t even look at the clock until we were beyond our usual interview slot. I was enthralled with the stories. We’ve seen movies about the Vietnam war, we’ve seen newspaper and TV coverage, but to hear it first-hand from someone who was there, boots on the ground, in the middle of a fire-fight, watching his platoon go down one man at a time until he’s the last one standing, is nothing short of chilling. To think that 18-21-year-olds were going through experiences like this while the rest of us were wondering who would go with us to the prom is an incongruity I have never gotten over; but I must admit, last night’s show provided much catharsis for my unresolved emotions. Continue reading
It’s a New Year, you guys, and people need to know that God isn’t mad anymore.
That’s right — that’s our message for 2015, God isn’t mad anymore!
Was He mad once? Well, yes. In fact, in the Old Testament you find numerous accounts of times He had second thoughts about this world He created and the people He populated it with. Once, He got so mad, He destroyed every living thing except for one man’s family and enough animals to start all over. However, it wasn’t long before things were almost as bad as they were before. So yes, God was mad, and mostly, He was mad at injustice — at the cruelty that we are capable of carrying out towards one another. Continue reading
Today’s Catch contains a eulogy to someone we don’t know, but wish we did.
She was on the staff of A New Way of Life Re-entry Project in Los Angeles that many of you supported with your gifts on Christmas. A New Way of Life helps women who have served prison time to transition back into a useful life upon their release from incarceration. Upon her untimely death, this was circulated about Evelyn Ayala. Continue reading
Jesus is the answer for the world today
Above Him there’s no other, Jesus is the way -Andrae Crouch
Out of the ashes of the Civil Rights struggle of the 1960s and the Vietnam conflict of the same era came the song of a healer. Someone who would bridge black and white with the healing touch of new music based on the unifying force of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was a soldier of another kind who fought the battles of spiritual warfare, and the physical battles of cancer and dyslexia, until he finally expired into the arms of his Savior yesterday at the age of 72. Andrae Crouch, a soldier who brought his music to the world at the same time Tim was fighting an enemy he couldn’t see, has fallen, and today we, along with many, celebrate his life and his many gifts to us. Continue reading
It’s hard to leave this subject. Vietnam sticks in the craw of this nation and especially in the psyche of my generation. We still don’t know what to think about it. I don’t, at least. It hasn’t been until this week that I have actually heard from someone I know personally who survived combat there. It’s been somewhat cathartic for me. Up until now, it’s been newspaper pictures, television clips and movies that have tried to bring Vietnam home to us, but none of that is quite like hearing it from someone you grew up with. So forgive me if I’ve overdone this. Probably time to move on, but for those who have been there, there are probably ways in which they can never move on. I’m sure it moves with them. Continue reading
One more post on the Vietnam war.
Yesterday’s post was about my friend Tim’s rescue of a downed Medevac helicopter crew in Vietnam in 1968. In researching that story I came upon a unique relationship on the battlefield during this conflict between the fighting infantry soldiers on the ground and the pilots and crews of the Medevac helicopters whose sole mission was to airlift dead, sick and wounded soldiers from the field. Continue reading
John Fischer The Catch 