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Maybe I’m imagining it, but it sort of looks to me that the launch of the online www.thebluepaper.com last Friday seemed to coincide with my daily ravings covering a lot more topics than in the past. Not good news for my vacation hopes. But then, neither was my being asked around Thanksgiving last year to pray for a Divine Intervention of the feminine into USA.
From Larry Murray yesterday:
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:02:25 -0700 From: citizenlarry007@yahoo.com Subject: Strategic Plan Meeting Sites To: keysmyhome@hotmail.com CC: mark.porter@keysschools.com; captecoed@aol.com; robin.smith-martin@keysschools.com; ron.martinsb@keysschools.com; John.Dick@KeysSchools.com; andy@fishandy.com
Sloan:
There is another curiosity regarding the Strategic Plan dog and pony show in addition to the selection of hosts. There are two meetings each in Key West, Marathon and the Key Largo area. There is no meeting in Big Pine Key or anywhere else in the Lower Keys. Apparently, our input is of no particular interest. As one of my correspondents wrote: “What are we? Chopped liver?” I guess we are expected to truck our way to Key West or Marathon.
Larry
Dr. Larry Murray
Fiscal Watchdog and Citizen Advocate
I replied:
From: keysmyhome@hotmail.com To: citizenlarry007@yahoo.com CC: mark.porter@keysschools.com; captecoed@aol.com; robin.smith-martin@keysschools.com; ron.martinsb@keysschools.com; john.dick@keysschools.com; andy@fishandy.com Subject: RE: Strategic Plan Meeting Sites Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 12:32:35 -0400
I think a meeting should be held at Sugarloaf School, which is convenient to anyone living in the lower Keys.
Mark Porter replied:
Subject: RE: Strategic Plan Meeting Sites Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:33:18 -0400 From: Mark.Porter@KeysSchools.com To: citizenlarry007@yahoo.com; keysmyhome@hotmail.com CC: captecoed@aol.com; Robin.Smith-Martin@KeysSchools.com; Ron.MartinSB@KeysSchools.com; John.Dick@keysschools.com; andy@fishandy.com
Dr. Murray,
An additional Community Engagement session is being added at Sugarloaf School. Arrangements are not yet complete, but I believe it will take place on April 10th in conjunction with their School Advisory Committee meeting. Upon confirmation additional information will be posted on the MCSD website.
Thank you.
Mark T. Porter
Superintendent of Schools
Monroe County School District
241 Trumbo Road |
Key West, FL 33040 | O: (305) 293-1400 x53323 | F: (305) 293-1408
Larry replied:
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 20:15:58 -0700 From: citizenlarry007@yahoo.com Subject: Re: Strategic Plan Meeting Sites To: Mark.Porter@KeysSchools.com; keysmyhome@hotmail.com CC: captecoed@aol.com; Robin.Smith-Martin@KeysSchools.com; Ron.MartinSB@KeysSchools.com; John.Dick@keysschools.com; andy@fishandy.com; bigpinenews@aol.com
I replied to All:
How about Bill Becker, News Coordinator of US 1 Radio? Bill lives about across the street from Sugarloaf School.
============================
A Key West friend replied to the Key West to Tallahassee walk to raise awareness of child molestation part of yesterday’s post. I removed his name because I felt leaving it in might cause more trouble than taking it out.
Dear Sloan, In the ’60?s when I was 12-18 years old, I seemed to be hit on by “faggots” more than usual, which goes to my repulsion of the same. By the time I was 18 I was savvy enough to avoid “faggots” and respond in kind and “fuck” them up when possible. (When I was in the Military, would go out and hunt them down with my military buddys) All faggots seek out weak and vulnerable persons, (usually youth and others) for to live out their sickness. No need to encourage it. Being a Faggot is a sickness, Lets leave it at that. and protect others. Thank You Sloan, P.S. If I had known you could get Big Bucks from being molested, in my youth, I would have volunteered.
I replied:
Hi _______ -
I was molested in infancy, and I later molested my younger sister, and I inherited big bucks, and lots of really bad things happened to me: my son died; my physical health went to hell; my dreams were smashed; I was married seven times; my daughters turned against me and have yet to say why; I seem to have excelled in failing by all of mainstream’s standards. I suppose it could have been worse; I might have been born in Angola, or Syria, or Siberia, or Watts. However, I also wonder if the lady walking from Key West to Tallahassee is using being molested in childhood to make money off of it, and I also wonder if she might be better off finding herself a new career.
As for gays, I have had a lot of gay friends, my brother was bisexual. There was nothing they could do about their sexual orientation; it was part of who they were. I don’t hold it against gays, that they are gay. However, I don’t care for them to hit on me, which used to happen sometimes. I dealt with it by saying I was straight as a string and I loved my wife and hoped to grow old and die with her. Can’t say all of that now, not having a wife, and it’s been years since a gay person hit on me. It didn’t happen when I was young. It started in 1998, as I came out of the killer dark night of the soul. The gays who hit on me were convinced I was gay, or at least bisexual; but I never felt it.
I have heard of a very prominent gay man in Key West, if I named him, it might be like Krakatoa going off, whom I was told by someone in a situation clearly arranged by the angels, has a “chicken farm” in the Caribbean. I asked the person if that was like the famous Chicken Ranch in Texas, a whorehouse? No, it’s a place where a wealthy gay man keeps a stable of young boys, I was told. I think about that every time I see that very prominent Key West man. I have tried to get a friend of his, who is bisexual, to ask him about it, but so far, I have not heard anything back.
This is tough terrain. You have plenty to enjoy and deal with, to be worried about this at the level you worry about it. So I imagine there is more to it than you might yet know. I don’t know what that might be, but the depth and strength of your feelings toward gays concerns me.
Sloan
On the other hand, looks like I stand corrected on the walker:
Sex abuse survivor launches walk in Key West
BY TERRY SCHMIDA Citizen Staff tschmida@keysnews.com
If that old adage that “the longest journey begins with a single step” is true, than sexual abuse survivor Lauren Book is well on the way to completing her trip.
Book’s journey is a personal odyssey of healing.
From the time she was 11, the Aventura native was sexually molested and otherwise physically abused by a nanny for over six years.
She has not let the experience defeat her, however.
On Tuesday morning, Book laced up her trusty Brooks running shoes, paused for a photo op at the Southernmost Point, and began walking — to Tallahassee.
Beginning in 2010, Book has undertaken an annual walk across Florida to the state capitol to raise awareness about child sexual abuse and help lobby for specific legislation.
Book is also the founder of the Lauren’s Kids nonprofit and the author of a memoir, “It’s OK to Tell: A Story of Hope and Recovery.”
This year’s Walk in My Shoes event will see Book criss-crossing the state, walking 1,500 miles to the capitol steps, where a “Rally in Tally” will stress Book’s 2013 legislative priorities.
“We’re trying to create a standardized abuse prevention curriculum that will reach every child in the state in grades one through five,” said Book, who previously championed a similar, successful initiative for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students. “Protecting our kids is just as important as teaching them their ABC’s and 123?s. And 95 percent of sexual abuse is preventable through education.”
Book, whose father is a well-known attorney and lobbyist, is also pushing for passage of HB 7031, which would extend the “victimless prosecution” option — currently available to victims 11 years old and younger — to children as old as 16.
“Basically, information gathered during an interview at a child advocacy center by a child protective team member or an investigator could be used in court so that the victim wouldn’t need to testify on the stand,” Book explained.
Should the bill pass, it will be yet another legislative feather in Book’s cap.
She has devoted her life to working with her foundation to further the cause of child sex abuse victims, and has advocated for a number of legislative initiatives over the years, including HB 525, which, in 2010, eliminated the statute of limitations for both civil and criminal prosecutions for crimes related to sexual assault committed against children under 16.
Last year, Book promoted HB 1355, which requires anyone with knowledge of abuse of children to call the Florida Department of Children and Families’ (DCF) hotline, at 1-800-962-2873. That law became effective in October.
Lauren’s Kids has also partnered with DCF to launch the Don’t Miss the Signs campaign, an attempt to educate adults on the warning signs of child abuse, and the process of making a report.
Book said she got the idea for the walks while healing from her own experience.
“It was really important to me to come up with a way to meet other individuals, and find out how they’re helping themselves, and where they go for help,” Book said. “I figured that the best way was to hit the road and walk, and talk with people. Over the years it really has helped make a difference. I see people now that I met on my first walk who didn’t know where to turn back then, and now they’re doing better, maybe in stable relationships. It’s all about helping survivors to be survivors.”
On Tuesday, Book held a press conference and rally at the Key West Publix, where she promoted Walk in My Shoes.
Among the attendees was Monroe County State Attorney Catherine Vogel.
“We really appreciate all the work done by victim’s advocates, including Lauren Book,” Vogel said. “This is a really amazing thing that she’s doing.”
Book’s walk across the state will take in 55 events in 42 days, including a stop 10 a.m. today at Christina’s Courage, 1663 Dunlap Drive in Key West, where she will connect with survivors at the sexual assault treatment center.
To donate to Book’s cause, or more information, visit www.laurenskids.org.
=======================
Maybe the angels who took me through the healing of sex-molestation, which healing was six-weeks of raw terror, will take all people who were sexually molested through their own healing of it; and maybe the angels will figure out a kinder, gentler way to do it; otherwise, exorcist priests, churches, psychiatrists, hospitals and undertakers will be overwhelmed with business.
From a Wisconsin native,
whom I met maybe around 1981 after he moved to Birmingham for a few years and became like a member of my second wife’s and my family.
Hey Sloan:
Haven’t been able to nail down a schedule to see you yet, but I am guessing next month our project in Ecuador will be ready for commissioning and I’ll plan to connect through Miami to spend some time catching up with you.
Below is a commentary on “The Bible” (Sunday nights on PBS) by a great friend of mine. I am in the process of kicking my faith exploration up a few notches and my friend Doug is quite a student to of scripture and holds projects such as this TV series to a high standard. I suspect you and he would have the same take on the production and story being told on TV. While everything he said may be true, all I know is that when my 18 and 23 year old are very interested to watch a biblical story weekly, that’s good enough for me
Can’t wait to see you one day soon… I hope!
Peace,
Mark
Note: One year ago yesterday it was 79 degrees here in Wisconsin, the grass was already growing, and golf courses had opened. This year? We had a low of 9 degrees last night and will go up to a balmy 26 today. I can’t wait to grow up and move to Florida!
From: Douglas Edmunds
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 7:56 AM
Subject: The Bible
I purposefully spent a little time last night watching the TV series, The Bible. Since I don’t watch much TV in the first place, the series was brought to my attention by someone I know. He was gushing about how mesmerized his family was by it. Then I happened to read something about how the official viewership rating is phenomenal. So, I thought I’d take a look.
Well, here is my take:
The production is generally major motion picture quality. Typically, this is the achilles heal of most Christian themed movies I’ve seen. The casting, acting, direction, cinematography, art direction, special effects, etc. is far better than average.
The fast paced, vignette style script keeps things moving. This appeals to the short attention span most viewers possess. To help flesh out the storyline and save them time, they’ve employed a voiceover narrator.
The art direction in creating the scenes was a mega leap in Christian film believability. Streets scenes, aerial views, costumes, etc. are quite good and believable to say nothing of the special effects. The brutality and grittiness of those days was probably fairly well depicted and they made sure there was plenty of it.
BUT
We must remember that they are dealing with God-inspired revelation. If this were some adaptation of a fiction novel, or made-for-TV screen play, that’s one thing. But God Himself states quite clearly:
“I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in the book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city which are described in this book.”
Revelation 22:18,19
The producers of this series have once again chosen to Hollywood-ize God’s Word. They follow the original “script’s” storyline but add and subtract to enhance the viewing experience. For those of us who hold holy scripture in reverential awe find this an abomination. Once tampered with, you don’t have the inerrant accuracy of divine revelation anymore.
They also made common assumptions based on church and popular tradition without blinking. For instance, the Three Kings did not arrive at Jesus’ birth, but rather close to 2 years later. Also, instead of giving the actors the actual words of scripture to speak, they paraphrased, or even invented dialogue. Most notable was not even what was spoken, but what was left unspoken from the Original Text. Of course, the creation of Satan, Gabriel, and other angelic beings was preposterous. This trend continued throughout.
Admittedly, I only watched an hour or so but I had to turn it off. The God I serve and worship was not in this production. Some may argue that this was a wonderful and powerful pushback to the world of secular, anti-Christian rhetoric and legislation that is becoming more and more the norm. I see their point. Yet, it is a dangerous thing to make the Bible a story book without clearly and precisely enunciating the deity and purpose of Christ as a Savior. Lesleigh Cushing, a Colgate University assistant professor commented in the Christian Science Monitor, “… it does not seem to be morally preaching Christianity or any other point of view, it’s just telling the adventure…”
In my opinion, that pretty much sums it up.
I replied:
Hi, Mark – well, I too am looking forward to seeing you after so many years, and I hope it is not too far down the road.
Your friend, movie reviewer, quoted this from Revelation, which is a New Testament book into which I have not been nudged, or shoved, by the angels who run me. I don’t recall that I ever wrote about Revelation, and I very seldom speak of it.
“I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in the book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city which are described in this book.”
Revelation 22:18,19
I believe it is generally accepted that the Bible came about some centuries after Revelation was scribed. The passage Emunds quoted looks to me like it refers to Revelation, and not to the Bible not yet in existence.
In any event, some of the views I have been given re various parts of the Gospels, Acts, Hebrews, and Paul, Jesus and Mary Magdalene, Jesus and his mother, and Joseph, and some Old Testament passages, probably would get me burned at the stake if I uttered them at The Southern Baptist Convention, or on the steps of The Sistine Chapel.
I was not told to change one word, but was shown the subtext behind the words.
Maybe some day the angels will put me into Revelation, which I have long felt bewildered the poor fellow who received it, and therefore had to be incomprehensible to later day prophets who preached it, unless they were told by angels of the Lord what it really meant.
Meanwhile, me, personally, — I sort of feel the angels who harass me, one of whom goes by the name, Jesus, another by the name, Michael, another by the name, Melchizedek-Magdalene, are of similar view — Jesus in the Gospels is the most misunderstood person in recorded human history. Misunderstood most of all in Christendom.
I was taught the salvation Jesus brought was how he lived and taught others to live, and to the extent people do that, that is the extent of their belief in and their salvation through Jesus.
The early church invented an easier to sell salvation through Jesus, which still sells well. A German fellow wrote something about that, although I imagine he also might view me as a proper candidate for stake burning.
The Cost of Discipleship – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Cost of Discipleship is a book by the German Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, considered a classic of Christian thought. The original German title is simply …
Share this rambling with Douglas Emunds, if you like.
Sloan
P.S.
The other night, I watched “Perfect Sense” on UVerse. Most interesting version of The Second Coming. First, people lost their sense of smell and taste. After a while, they went into uncontrolled weeping. That passed. Then, they went into violent bursts of rage. That passed. Then, they no longer could hear. They learned how to sign and were happy. Then, they experienced unconditional love, immediately followed by going blind. The movie ended. I thought to myself, whoever dreamed that movie up was seriously tuned in.
=====================
I was told in a nap dream this morning, after putting up the first version of this post, to sweeten Jesus up a lot. I never did care for Revelation, nor for fire and brimstone, nor for everyone is going to hell who doesn’t believe in a certain way. I prefer this view of Jesus, Revelation notwithstanding.
Along that same line, on this ending to what I shared yesterday from the open Mystics, Madmen & Muses Facebook group -
https://www.facebook.com/groups/223333164480200/ –
In a dream, I was put in charge of humor in this group. When to use it, when not to use it.
From time to time when I was with my Boulder wife, I would drop this on people:
“What do you call a whore with a runny nose?”
They never could say.
I would say:
“Full.”
Way it looked to me, my Boulder wife became the highest paid whore in Colorado. Maybe that’s why she moved back to Pennsylvania.
Maybe I should tell that joke more often down here in the Florida Keys.
After putting the above up this morning, I recalled my ex also became Buddhist, probably the Tibetan strain, since that was what Dora Kalff’s son Martin was. I then lay down for a nap, hoping to get direction in dreams, and quite a few dreams came, out of each of which I slightly awoke mostly confused, and then I went back to sleep into another dream, and awoke slightly, again confused, and went back into another dream, and so on.
I get bound up in my intestines when I do heavy internal work, and I was shown that in one dream, and that I had more work to do; and then I heard “Tibetan refugees”, and I figured that was relevant.
I wrestled, and was not entirely comfortable with my conclusions, and wrestled some more and took another nap and was shown in dreams that some of my conclusions were off, and I woke up and deleted a good bit of what I had written, and wrestled some more, and some more.
Here is where I ended up.
There is no God in Tibetan Buddhist cosmology. Martin Kalff told me that himself in Zollikon, near Zurich, in the summer of 1988, after I had gone to a ceremony with him at a Tibetan Buddhist temple. Maybe my ex thought by becoming Tibetan Buddhist she could get out of the covenant she had made with God to redo our financial settlement after her son was on his own.
When we were together, I suppose my ex was esoteric Christian, which was how Martin’s mother Dora had described herself. Maybe my ex became Tibetan Buddhist because she wanted to leave Christendom behind, start all over? However, that never works; wherever we go, and whatever we patch on top of it, there we still are.
Dora often said, in order for any real change to occur on this world, the women will have to go first. I doubt that is the view of Tibetan Buddhism. Dora also told her students, they could take their clients only as far as they themselves had gone, and they must continue to do their inner work if they wanted their clients to progress.
Predominantly a child therapist, my ex knew many of her troubled son’s difficulties were rooted in abandonment caused by her taking several jobs to stay out of the home, away from her husband, when her son was a toddler. I agreed, and was concerned that she was smothering him, to make up for when she was not there when he was a toddler. I told her she needed to give him room to breathe.
I also told her that she and her son’s father both needed to lay off planning their son’s college career, as if their son’s very soul depended on him matching or exceeding their college and post graduate educations. It didn’t look to me that the boy was headed in that direction.
When my former stepson finally approached me online a few years ago, we talked a few times on the phone and online, and it was good between us. He said he realized his senior year in high school that he did not want to go to college, and just before graduation he enlisted in the Navy. Then, he told his parents what he had done. I said I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that. We laughed.
The Navy trained him real good, and after he got out he started taking college courses which interested him, and he continued to live on the other side of America from his parents. I was glad for him, because I knew very well what it was like to have parents try to live through me. It took the angels a good while to get me over letting my internalized parents live through me.
My recollection of Jesus in the Gospels, he was a big believer in people not letting their parents live through them, but to let God live through them. My ex and I discussed that many times when we were together.
She knew I was spirit-blocked from making a living wage. I figure her son joined the Navy around 2000. The fall of 2000, I ran out of money. She was no longer supporting her son. I went to living on the street. Hard to have nice thoughts about how that all could have been avoided.
Since I know the angels who run me were perfectly capable of jerking my ex up by the scruff of her neck and scaring the bejesus out of her, like they had done to my woman friend in Salt Lake City, I can only conclude that God wanted me to be broke and for my ex to keep the money, and I need to get used to that. I’m thrilled.
On the other hand, I made a covenant with God in early 1987, when I offered my life to human service and the angels came and told me my offer had been accepted. Maybe if God let my ex out of her covenant, God will let me out of the covenant I made, of which my ex was well aware. On top of that, maybe God will drop a pile of money on me, and fix my guts and other busted parts of my body, so I can enjoy my retirement.
Not holding my breath.
Next today,
an absolutely spot-on letter to the editor in The Citizen.
Columnist could use a dose of own advice
Serendipity indeed, Mr. Belland. I implore you to heed the very poignant advice you so eloquently shared with readers in your March 17 column titled “Serendipity … messages we shouldn’t ignore.”
It is truly serendipitous that the publication of your column comes during a time when Key West is facing a monumental decision regarding the island’s channel-widening. Where is the line drawn between procuring profits and protecting future resources? I think it is finally time to consider drawing that line in our own backyard rather than continuing to ask others to do so in theirs.
As you mention in your article, now is the time to “summon the gumption” to spare the living reefs off the Keys; spare them from a horrendous raping of their fragile ecosystem. You speak of how “our right to overindulge … more often than not, infringes on the rights of others when their ill effects cause society to pay the bills.”
How can you separate this from the island’s fragile ecosystem, and the devastating effect the channel-widening [would] have on it? I contend that you cannot. We may not have icecaps here in the Keys, but instead we have coral, seagrass, sponges, and other vital filtering mechanisms, habitat and food sources that would be destroyed; it does not take a scientist or costly scientific study to show us this.
Let’s learn from our past mistakes, take off our blinders and have the gumption to finally say enough is enough. You and those surrounding you certainly have the power and political influence to get this important message across. Please show us that what you speak of truly does matter and that you believe it, rather than have it just be the subject of an entertaining commentary.
With this said, I must also mention an article published just last week titled “Two Carnival ships skip Southernmost City.” I believe this is a prime example of serendipity, which you define as “those strange situations that just happen out of the blue but seem to make some kind of sense.” Clearly, it is not always the case that “if you build it, they will come.”
Jayne Kilpatrick
Cudjoe Key
Repeat:
Maybe I’m imagining it, but it sort of looks to me that the launch of the online www.thebluepaper.com last Friday seemed to coincide with my daily ravings covering a lot more topics than in the past. Not good news for my vacation hopes. But then, neither was my being asked around Thanksgiving last year to pray for a Divine Intervention of the feminine into USA. Although, I might not mind too terribly her spending more time with me, if this is how she feels inclined to come in.
Sloan Bashinsky