Wednesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“I have never killed anyone, but I have read obituary notices with great satisfaction.”

Clarence Darrow

A few months ago I told y'all about an investigation here in Greenville, SC. Bob Jones University is a rock ribbed, fundamental Christian based school that teaches from kindergarten to a master's degree and is located here. A lot of heat had been put on them for reported sexual abuse and harassment and not looking at the cases seriously. A Christian based investigating organization was hired to look into these charges. This company is a Billy Graham organization. A much anticipated report of their investigations was issued and the report was extensive and very detailed. I read the entire report and to me it was clearly an indictment. Many women reported the same things that primarily the university trying to make the woman at least partially responsible for being abused or harassed. The leader of this medieval thinking was a man named James Beck. He asked the women if they were wearing their clothes too snug, smiling a lot, saying things that could be interpreted at an invitation, etc. The best I remember the report did not include any case that was resolved satisfactorily for the abused or harassed person. James Beck was relieved of his duties for a while but recently he rejoined the school staff in an active position of authority.

I asked a person that is more in touch with this situation than I if there had been a decrease in the student body or applications for admission. The response was that the university has not reported anything like that but individuals had reported that their were decreases. It was initially surmised that the university would just ignore the report and continue business as usual hoping things would just blow over. That appears to be exactly what is happening in spite of the fact that there is no question that outright crimes were committed. How and why does this institution of higher learning abide this kind of thinking from a person of authority like Beck?

I want to know what would be your response if you were the mother or father of one of these students? I can assure you that if it was one of my girls I would be camped out on the front door of James Beck, et. al. waiting for an explanation. As is said in the land of the rednecks...James Beck needs an attitude adjustment as does the entire staff that knew this was going on and chose to ignore it to keep their jobs. Is that a Christian method? I think not...it is typical of those that have an ego the size of Montana and want to maintain their magnanimous image. They are not interest in anyone's soul but their own. By the way, not one of the upper echelon of BJU's administration was present at the presentation of the investigative report. Not only are they egomaniacs...they are gutless.

     This Date in History    March 11

1779 On this date the United States Congress decided to implement an arm of the Government called the Corp of Engineers. The Congress realized that yet another war with Great Britain was not far out there on the horizon and they decided that better offensive and defensive structures were sorely needed, especially around the mouth of New York harbor. In the war of 1812 The British navy took one look at the defenses in the approaches to New York and said “To hell with, we ain’t going through there.” Then they attempted to invade other American ports and were successful for the most part that is until they ran across Andrew Jackson at the Battle of Chalmette or better know as the Battle of New Orleans. With the aid of a corp of engineers, “Old Hickory” constructed a formidable defense and kicked the living s--t out of the attacking British. The sad part here was that the Treaty ending this War of 1812 had been signed several weeks before and the war was actually over before the Battle was fought. After the Revolutionary War ended in 1784, the Corp of Engineers shrunk appreciably as a great number of civil engineers went back to the house to start their lives over. In 1804 the Corp was given an even larger role in the management of our natural resources. They were assigned the task of flood control of our rivers and later on were tasked with damming of there river for electricity and recreation. In my home state nearly all the lakes of the border rivers with the accompanying states are “Corp” lakes meaning they are responsible for the flow of the rivers related to flood control and maintenance of the dams and the power is governed by individual power companies such as Duke Energy and Carolina Power and Light, etc.

1884 Earlier a Texan named Ben Thompson gained a reputation as a gunslinger by shooting a black man in a fight in Austin, Texas. He was 16. As with the majority of the gunfighters of that era they learned their trade during the Civil War. Ben earned no special notoriety during the war and even began an honest occupation of a typesetter in New Orleans after the war. But the whorehouses and gambling parlors there was too much of an attraction and Ben went over to the dark side. In 1872 Ben went to the cow town of Ellsworth, Kansas to meet his brother Billy. One night Billy and Ben got into an argument with other gamblers and the local deputy came in and broke it up. About that time the sheriff named Chauncey Whitney came to the deputy’s assistance and was escorting the Thompson brothers across the street to their hotel. All of a sudden Billy pulled out his hog leg and killed Sheriff Whitney. The two got away and Ben roamed around Kansas staying clear of Ellsworth. He gained some respectability and was successful in running for sheriff of Austin. He could not stay away from the gambling, however and got into fight over a gambling debt with three other men. Ben killed one of them but the other two escaped. On this date in 1884, Ben was coming out of the Vaudeville Theater in San Antonio when he was ambushed and killed by the two other gamblers that got away. Evil begets evil, y'all.

          Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow