Good Men

    

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke) This was stated in the late 1700's and to this day, it still stands true. Apathy will surely be our undoing. 

A few years ago, when my mind and interests were heavily into politics, I was a news junkie, closely following every major media outlet along with both local and obscure broadcasts and publications. I read myself into bifocals and would sit up bleary eyed at two in the morning flipping from CNN to FOX to MSNBC watching the headlines and hearing the multitude of takes on all the same stories. Emotionally it took a huge toll on me as there was seldom good news and depending on which channel I was on, the news went from bad to worse to catastrophic. I don't think that it is any great mystery as to why at this point in time that I was also suffering from stress blood pressure. Along with being completely immersed in all things news worthy, I was also blogging a great deal about politics and current events and speaking my mind quite prolifically on social media throwing out my opinions and debating others over theirs. It was pretty safe to say that with all of the other stuff going on in Lisaland, adding in all of this headline making stress, caused me to physically and emotionally idol in a constant state of stress. 

One day I woke up and realized that life was too short for all of this self imposed stress. My opinions, though respectfully expressed, no really......when it comes to politics and opinions of such, I honestly strive to never belittle or degrade someone for a difference of political opinion or party, however, my respectful opinions and views, were only in-sighting those who believed differently to various stages of anger. Full on wars were breaking out both in the comments of my blogs and in the pages of social media. I learned rather quickly that in this self serving, instant gratification world we currently live in, that the First Amendment just pisses people off. There is little room for anyone else's beliefs if they don't coincide with our own. I found myself unfriended and even black balled to a degree by a few, right here in my own little small town utopia. While I like to think of myself as tough as nails, it truly is a facade. It was becoming very personal for some and my opinions, respectful though they were, were fueling a rather dangerous fire. At this point, I had to ask myself two questions....1) Were my blogs and my opinions changing anything? If not then....2) Was expressing myself worth the added stress it was causing me? Sadly I hung my my head, turned off the tv and jumped to the other end of the spectrum and became a media hermit. Apparently I wasn't the only one, because along about the same time, I started seeing others doing the same. Once again social media was full of family pictures, detailed statuses about what we ate for lunch and cute pet memes. The stress was over but just because we were not acknowledging the crumbling of the world, didn't mean it still wasn't happening. 

In more recent times, my blogs have been less and less political with only the occasional soap box editorial slipping through. I post nothing political on social media and although I would much prefer to live in a media blackout world where the worst thing that happens in my life is personal and non-newsworthy,  I do turn on a computer daily and I channel surf on occasion, so I see the headlines from time to time. I am not oblivious to the state of our country or the state of the world. I do still post political from time to time, but I have gone underground to do so. This has come with mixed reviews from those who call themselves my friends on social media and those who read my blogs. My SM friends comments range from "I like your Facebook posts so much better now that your feed is all about (insert whatever fluffy piece of BS you choose)," to "What happened......did you quit caring about this country? Don't you care what our kids are going to have to face after we are gone?" My blog comments and messages are along the same lines. I get a lot of "We like it when your blogs are light and airy and really say nothing," (of course I am paraphrasing here) to, "When are you going to start giving us some real blogs again? I miss your political blogs where you really stand for something." Bottom line, there is just no pleasing a majority of the world. 

So of late I have been paying a bit more attention to the news. The world is in grave danger and our country is no exception. We are no longer viewed as a super power and therefore, we hold little clout in the eyes of our enemies. What was once hate, tempered with both fear and respect from our enemies is now little more than disdain as we have consistently shown the chinks in our armor and made ourselves fair game to those who would like to damage and even kill us. What is worse is that we have shown the world that as a country we choose to fight among ourselves using words like racism and discrimination causing huge divides within our own ranks. A divided country is a weak country and we are the weakest we have ever been since this country was formed. We are also desensitized to the world around us. When the beheading of an American journalist by terrorist is superseded in the news by the death of an 81 year old comedienne, we have lost our compass. No offense to Joan Rivers, I found her bawdy, funny and in some cases dead on with her no holes barred opinions, but......news of her death should not have been headlines on every major media outlet while Steven Sotloff's murder at the hand of our enemies was merely a minor headline rolling past at the bottom of the page. 

Perhaps as a people we are tired. Like me, speaking out, debating and trying to make people think and having it all fall on angry deaf ears, becomes exhausting, so we/me stop. I retreated to a comfortable though fictitious place, where regardless of what was going on in the world, my ears too were deaf, but to what avail? Am I now one of those "good men" that Burke spoke of over two centuries ago? Have we spent so much time arguing among ourselves, finger pointing and denying the facts about what is really going on in the world, that we have lost sight of the obvious realities and are emotionally and psychologically immune to learning that our enemies want us dead and are daily making great strides to that end? Are we just simply sitting back and letting it all happen? 

If the worst does happen.....then what? Who do we blame? Will it be the Republicans? The Democrats? The conservatives? The Liberals? Or will the real blame lie with the good men and women who stood back and did nothing, said nothing and made no waves, thus allowing evil to triumph. I think the answers are pretty clear, if we are paying attention. We are not just letting our country down nor our children and future generations. No, we are letting down everyone who ever fought for this country, suffered for this country and died for this country. Because of us, the men, women and children they gave so much to defend, and because of our apathy and denial, we are coming close to losing it all. So is this how it ends? Do we give up and give in.....laying out the welcome mat and arming our enemies thus bringing on our own demise? Or, do we once again take a stand, unite and take back what is our ours?  In the end, the choice lies......with good men. 

August in Ferguson

Ferguson, Mo. Before August 9th, I am pretty sure no one but those in the area of Ferguson or those who were former residents of the place had ever heard of it. Now, unless you live under a rock with no news coverage whatsoever, you know Ferguson. Ferguson is now on the map both literally and figuratively.....for all the wrong reasons. 

In case you truly are coming out from under that rock, here's a little recap. On Aug. 9, 2014 a young man in Ferguson, named Michael Brown, was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson, after Wilson was responding to a robbery call. It was established that Brown was unarmed and that he put up a fight with Wilson, attempting to take his gun. Brown was killed. Tragic! Was Brown part of the robbery? Why did Brown go for Wilson's gun? There are a million and one questions, but regardless of the answers....Brown died. 

We live in a world where the good police officers are tainted by the ones who use excessive force and march to the beat of their own god complex egos. To them, it is not about protecting and serving...it is about making the public their bitch. Strong language? Yes, but more and more we see the bad cops making the headlines while the good cops suffer because of the notoriety. Was Wilson a vigilantly hell bent on getting Brown, the suspect, at all cost, or was Wilson a cop doing his job and protecting his own life against a suspect who was willing to take his gun and kill him just to get a way? Tried in the court of public opinion, the world seems to be split pretty evenly as the investigation continues into the case. Now some 21 days later, I find myself angry over this and question just what is happening to our world and what is happening to the people who inhabit it?

The days that followed Browns shooting were unbelievable as the media followed the town of Ferguson and watched as it's citizens literally destroyed the town of about 21,000 people. Ferguson is a suburb of St. Louis and according to both the internet and to a couple of people I know from that area, it is a high crime area and it is heavily populated by African Americans. So Browns death, made for the perfect storm for the race card to be shouted from the tops of the roofs and for the media to join in and stir the pot. 

Following the incident, Ferguson was turned on its head by riots, looting and the major destruction of property. There were death threats made against Wilson (who incidentally was white)and the police force in general and the media stood back stirring and asking inciting questions trying to keep the passion and anger of those rioting at a high burn.....all in the name of avenging Brown's (who incidentally was black) death. 

As the riots continued, the town had to be put on curfew as the violence escalated. Businesses were destroyed as their destroyers proudly went on camera threatening the business owners, if they didn't rebuild......for the community. What? This was not an act of civil disobedience. It was an act of anger gone wild with no worry of consequences and no empathy to those who were innocent and caught in the crossfire. It was one race hating another and acting violently on that hate. I couldn't help but wonder how the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would view this. Was this his dream? I don't think so and if he were here today, I think he would have been a voice of reason trying to calm and unite both races and our country instead of what his so-called predecessors are doing by being the voice of instigation fueling anger, division of races, violence and ultimately a division of our country. Once again....the race card is played. 

It is a tragedy that Brown died, however when the investigation is over, will we find that Brown precipitated his own death by going for Wilson's gun? Whatever the findings, someone died and that never makes for a good day. However, if the victim had been a white man, would there have been such outrage? What if the officer had been a black man? Do you think that there would have been rioting and looting and do you think the Rev. Billy Graham would have been on sight to fuel the fire of an angry mob? I think we all know the answer to that. 

No....I am not racist, but I think in this day and age.....trying not to be viewed as racist has backfired. It has caused a division in this country that has not been seen since the 1960's and even then, with Malcom X, King and all of those on the forefront of the Civil Rights movement, cooler heads prevailed. No one wanted what is going on today. 

So we know we have a problem, how do we fix it? While I have several personal opinions on the subject, it appears that the most violent of storms happen involving the police or with police on the scene. Perhaps there needs to be a push for police cams to be general issue to all cops across the country. In the places that have already implemented them, crime is down and cops (especially the god complex ones) seem to be towing the line better. It has also cut down on citizen complaints against officers and ultimately, it makes the streets a whole lot safer for everyone. 

Now I am going to leave this blog with my opinion. Maybe instead of fighting each other, we need to remember that regardless of our skin color, we are Americans. With all that is going on in the world that is indirectly and could at the drop of a hat....directly be affecting our country, perhaps we should unite as a people and find a common ground...the common ground that our forefathers both black and white have fought hard for and some.....paid a hefty price for. A country that is divided is already weak and a weak country is an easy target for our enemies. Just a thought. 

Wisdom

Okay....a little late in the game today but better late than never to have posted at all. Right?! I guess the same goes with wisdom. For some strange reason, we never gain true wisdom until much later in the game. Why is that? Well, life experience of course. You can't be wise about things you know nothing about. Again....right?!

True wisdom and prayer, are in my opinion, right up there in the top ten of the greatest gifts we are given in this life. I say true wisdom with the emphasis on the "true," because it is only real and only comes after we have lived and experienced life. However, at every age we think we are wise and honestly, we are wiser at seven than we were at six and wiser at 18 than we were at 17, but just how wise is that?

At 18 we are not wise enough to comprehend that cigarettes will actually kill us, that college is one of the most important steps we will ever take in life and that our parents aren't going to be with us forever. We are just too limited and inexperienced to understand the gravity of the choices we make and the wheels we set in motion at such a young age that can and often do effect the rest of our lives. At 18, we are only wise by an 18 year old standards. To the rest of the world we are simply young and foolish. However, at 45 when someone finds out they have lung cancer and won't be around to watch their kids grow up, that their job opportunities and their ability to support their family might have been a lot better had they gone on to college and the realization of how much they miss hearing their parents voice, hugging them or simply having a conversation with them, that is when true wisdom sets in and the impact of just how little they really knew or understood the world way back when..... hits home like a brick.

A favorite saying of those who grow older and gain the wisdom of their years is "Youth is wasted on the young." Their perspective is more of an "If I knew then what I know now," but the fact is, the young have to be foolish. They have to make their mistakes, burn their bridges and live with their consequences. Without these things, then they would not grow up or grow wiser. It is the mistakes and failures that we learn from. That is when and where true wisdom is gained.

As a parent, I struggle with this. While my wisdom is surely far more advanced than that of an 18 year old, I still don't have all the answers and never will. I can however see further ahead than 18 years and I know when mistakes are being made, bridges are being burned and when the consequences of bad choices are likely to have long and lasting effects on life. The problem is, my wisdom to an 18 year old is antiquated, ridiculous and unnecessary and try as I might, you can't fix foolish and immature...only time and experience can do that, so I have to back off and let them proceed. That is when I invoke that other great gift....prayer. 

Wisdom! To gain it is to be thankful for the past....both the good times and the bad. I think though, it is to be most especially thankful for the tough times, the hard times and yes.... the bad times, for that was when we grew, we learned and when we became wise. So it is true, with age comes wisdom, but thankfully, there will always be those who are older, wiser and still think I am nothing but young and foolish! God bless them all!

Twerking After 50 and the Rooms

Okay.....so twerking after 50 is not a good idea! Truthfully, twerking at any age is not pretty, but after 50 it just becomes physically dangerous. Yes, I am speaking first hand. You have to know that alcohol was involved, along with hanging out with some really bad influences (other 50 year olds from my graduating class of #@ years ago). I am just thankful that everyone was too busy doing their own version of twerking to take pictures. Ain't nobody wants to see any of that!!!! 

Since that display of really bad judgment, I have been a miserable human being. Everything from my waist to my toenails sends out periodic waves of discomfort and sometimes full on pain. I have had to ice my knees and ankles like I just ran a marathon. Even the bottoms of my feet hurt and I have been walking like I am 90 years old and need a walker. To say that I have been moving slow is an understatement BUT, I have been accomplishing things.....slowly.....very slowly. This brings me to today's actual topic........projects!

Two rooms in my house were the bane of my existence. David's therapy room/guest bedroom and my crafting room/office. Both were catch-alls for the excess junk that accumulated in the rest of the house. It seems throwing stuff in those rooms was much easier than actually putting things away. I kept their doors shut because they depressed me so, and quite frankly they were embarrassing. Even my house broken dogs hated those two rooms and showed it by frequent acts of disrespect and self expression on their respective floors. I was so over those rooms! Even in my post twerking condition, I knew they must be done.

It took me two days and a whole lot of aspirin, ice packs and a couple of nights of sleeping with the heating pad, but I accomplished my goal and cleaned both rooms. Who knew they actually had floors? Oh yeah....the dogs knew! Now David's therapy room/guest room is 98% finished. There are still a couple of places on the walls that need to be touched up as his hospital bed did a number on them and I need to find a really good rug to cover the less than stellar floors, but other than that......I am pretty pleased with the outcome.

The craft room/office is about 80% done. Everything has a place and it is clean, neat and accessible but, the walls need painted and the floor needs immediate help. When we pulled up carpet several years ago, those two rooms were in the worst shape floor wise. I am thinking about possibly painting the floor in the craft room and see how it turns out. At any rate though, these projects have made my main floor living space a whole lot nicer and the dogs have been threatened with their lives if they even think of expressing themselves in either room.

So I am pretty proud of my rooms now and I am proud of working through the pain. I am however, not so proud of what I did to cause the pain. So let that be a lesson to you all. Twerking and alcohol just don't mix after 50!

Don't Judge Me! I'm a Blogger!

So I think I will start Monday out by patting myself on the back. I'll have you know that I have not missed a day of blogging in a week! Yay me! Okay, so back patting over and we are moving on...........

I am in a really positive mood today (hope I didn't just jinx myself) so I thought I would talk about something that I truly love. Blogging! Of course I was a blogger before blogging was cool. I would write down my thoughts, stories and ideas (I believe it was called a journal) and make anyone in close proximity to me read it. Apparently I was not the only one or else blogs would never have been a thing. Blogging is self-indulgence for the writer set.

Writing has always been my one true non-human passion. Knowing that I have the power to make someone feel happy, sad, nostalgic or even down right angry through my words, is amazing. Also having the ability to sway a persons opinions or feelings on subjects or just to make them think, is an empowerment all its own. It means that my words, thoughts and opinions mean something to someone.....other than just myself. How cool is that?

I have always had the desire to tell stories or maybe just to be heard. Then two very influential teachers in my high school years Mr. Mason, my creative writing teacher who challenged me on every level with my story creations and Mrs. Jaax my senior English teacher who challenged me on every level with words, ignited a fire in me that still burns brightly some 30 years later. They lit the match and although at times there have only been embers, now there is a full fledged fire again, with thoughts and words dying to get out daily. Please....you don't have to thank me! You're welcome!

When I learned about blogging, it seemed like such a natural progression from my story writing and my opinionated forum writing. At the time, Facebook was so limited on what you could post that it didn't come close to scratching my writing itch. However, after learning about blogs and starting my own, it took a while to completely understand the whole blog thing. Once I did though, and more importantly, once I learned that I had a real audience outside the family and friends I had to bribe into reading my stuff, it was as if I had found my destiny. Of course I always pretend I have a much larger following than I actually do and that EVERYONE is just dying to know what I have to say on any given subject......on any given day. It is part of the magic that is my mind. Honestly though, I do get my fair share of "fan" mail, both good and not so good at times, and I have had the occasional person stop me at the store telling me that they read my blogs, so it is a definite win for my ego and it keeps the narcissistic part of my brain happy.

The new thing (or new to me anyway), is making money with blogs. Now I know very little to almost nothing about this sort of thing. The fact that you could write a blog and make money on it, well it is just too fantastic to even comprehend. I guess though, that is the way the world is going and I honestly think I should educate myself and try to jump on that band wagon. I mean doing what you love and getting paid for it......HOW SWEET IS THAT?

Okay, so money or not, I love to blog! I will continue to write and in the fantasy world that is in the darkest most recessed part of my mind (fondly known as Lisaland) my readership will grow exponentially and you, my devoted fans......will all continue to hang on my every word. What???? Don't judge me! I'm a blogger!

Church....It's Not You....It's Me!

I saw a quote posted the other day that stated: "The biggest problem with being a Christian, is going to church!" Hmmmm Truth?

In the Ten Commandments we are told to "Keep Holy the Sabbath." Translation? Go to church? There was a time, that if you considered yourself a Christian, you went to church. If you didn't go, then you might as well just consider yourself a non-Christian heathen. As times have changed though, peoples relationships with God, church and the Ten Commandments have greatly changed and because of this, church is replaced by sleeping late, "family time," weekend projects and any other excuses we can come up with. But in a poll I saw recently on some Christian website, one of the top three reasons people quit going to church (regardless of denomination) was.....the people who also attend church. Hypocrisy and gossip were the reasons given for not going to church. It had nothing to do with lack of love for God or loss of faith....and everything to do with others. I have to say, I kind of get that excuse.

I have spent the better part of 40 years in my little town and my little church. Those two phrases (little town and little church) are exactly why when I was in school about 1/3 of  the kids were church attending Catholics and now only about 1/2 of that number remain. And it wasn't just Catholics. We had a large number of Baptists and Methodists also, with other denominations making up the rest. Their numbers are about the same too. Some of the loss of church goers was that growing up....going to church was a thing, but not really a thing. In other words, they did what was expected of them, but they never really got invested in God or the whole church thing and so when they were of age to make their own decisions, their choice was not to attend. In my home, we ate, slept and lived God as He and prayer were a fixture there. We prayed before meals and at bedtime and we invited God into our lives daily. Sunday Mass was not just a childhood expectation....in my home it was a life long requirement.

I always loved church, but I also knew that the Catholic church had rules. When I was old enough to choose for myself, there were stretches of time that I didn't go to Mass. It wasn't because I didn't believe or didn't want to.....it was because I was making the choice to live outside the rules of the Catholic church and therefore I didn't feel worthy of attending Mass. At least that is what I told myself.

Once I began having a family, I realized how important a faith based foundation was for raising a family and I came back to regular attendance and was the best Catholic I could be. However, I couldn't receive any sacraments.....Holy Communion to be precise, because I was married to a divorced man outside the church. It is amazing how being denied that one thing can change the entire Mass experience. Now don't get me wrong, I am not blaming the church. That rule was in existence long before I was ever thought of and as a cradle Catholic, I was fully aware of it. I made the choice and I lived with the consequences. The Church had no reason to bend for me...nor should it.

After Tim died, I was once again allowed to receive the sacraments and I was happy with my faith and my religion. Then it began to happen. Maybe it had always happened and I was now just at a place in my life where I actually saw it. I am speaking of the whole hypocrisy and gossipy thing. I found myself more than once witness to people sitting in church on Sunday with their judgmental eye on everyone who walked in the door and yet Monday they were being the opposite of what most of us would perceive as good Christians. Since I try hard not to judge others, I chalked it up to all human beings, being works in progress and would tell myself, "Well at least they go to church and try. Think how much worse they might be if they didn't do that!" I think though, the straw that broke my back was when I learned that I was the target of judgement and gossip. I tried very hard at first to keep a low profile and stick to my own little world and my own little life. Then I thought, maybe I should just jump head first into church groups and that would quiet the voices. Neither worked as apparently my life, my family and our souls were up for conversation and judgment every time two or more were gathered at that church.

One Sunday, several years back, as David, Z and I were sitting at the back of the church in the vestibule (we no longer have a cry room.....and I for one miss it) David got a little loud and vocal. I tried my best to keep his loud "wooo's" and "yee haws" to a minimum. He was not happy sitting still and wanted to roam and after Mass I felt like I had been through the wringer. The next day I was told by not one but two people, in the kindest of ways that maybe bringing David to Mass was not such a good idea because he was loud and very distracting. Not wanting to further subject David to those people nor the Parrish to David's loudness, from that day forward, Z and I have not attended Mass together. We now go in shifts so that one of us can always stay home with David. After that, it got to the point that people were "kindly" letting me know that so and so said this about me and surely it wasn't true. After one of Davids two week episodes of being in and out of the hospital someone else came up to me and said, "I heard you had left the church!" Shocked, I explained that David had been in the hospital and that is why I had not been able to attend the last couple of Sunday's. Their reply was, "Well you know not attending Mass is a sin." Yeah, I was taken a back. The most heart breaking incident though, happened when someone close to me, grabbed my son after Mass one Sunday when I was home sick with the flu and told Z that they were worried for our souls because we were not attending Mass regularly. It was all I could take.

After all of the judgment and gossip, I simply couldn't do it anymore. I dropped out of any and all church groups and I started attending Mass at the Catholic care home in town. They have early Mass on Sunday at 7:30 a.m. and aside from the residents, there are only a handful of parishioners that attend.  That and the occasional trip to the church in the next town is where I have been attending. Of late though, I have been struggling with church. NOT my faith mind you, but my church. I pray, I question and quite honestly, I have been lost. My life does not feel right without church, but in light of the last six months and all that has been happening with my family, I am simply not up to being judged or gossiped about. I don't do it to others and I hate that others feel that it is okay to do it to me. Now let me say here, the few I speak of, are not the whole at my home town church. Within that church lie the hearts and souls of  many very kind and generous people who have reached out to me on more than one occasion, especially when it was hard for me to ask for help on my own. Unfortunately, it was the few with sharp tongues and unrequested judgments based in nothing more than gossip that were keeping me from walking through those doors. However, today I realized that the power I gave them was ruining my spiritual wholeness, my relationship with God and my relationships with all the truly wonderful people in the Parrish. It really was me.....and not the whole of them.

There has been much soul searching going on of late. I am changing and not just in one area. I am changing EVERYTHING and today, I stepped out of the past and left it at the door of my church as I walked into 11 a.m. Mass. When I stepped in, the comfort and warmth surrounded me and the feeling of "home" was there. I watched as familiar faces, new faces and some faces I missed very much, walked in and took their seats. As I knelt to pray, I felt a calm and relief come over me and I realized, that for the first time in a very long time, I wasn't angry. I no longer had the feeling that at times almost felt like rage over how I and my kids had been treated by a select few. It was replaced with complete forgiveness and I went back to knowing what deep down I had always known, these people weren't perfect. They were human and they weren't why I attended Mass. I was allowing my inability to forgive, and my anger over the past, to be my excuse for not visiting God in His home. His sanctuary. My sanctuary. My home. God had done nothing wrong and my going to Church was not about them. It was about Him and my relationship with God and God alone.

Today, I have spiritual perspective.....much more than I have had in a very long time. I have forgiven, been forgiven, found peace and most of all......I have found my way back home!

Happy Sunday everyone.

OKC Satanic Black Mass.....The Ultimate Hate Speech

The black mass or satanic mass....just what it is? It is a complete inversion and desecration of the Christian Catholic mass. It is a calling on and worshiping of satan, pure and simple.

The black mass and forms of it, go back to the middle ages when "ceremonies" began by what were considered heretical groups involved in witchcraft and the dark arts. These masses were designed with the purpose of worshiping "the dark lord," better known as satan. The ceremonies or masses consisted of everything from bizarre sexual acts to ritualistic sacrifices. 

Satanist along with other fringe dark arts worshipers remained a hidden element for centuries. Their ceremonies were held in secrecy and their followers were carefully admitted as their acts of satanic worship were both blasphemous to God and Christianity and in many cases illegal. It wasn't until the late 1960's that the satanic underground movement began to pull itself above ground, with the likes of Anton LaVey. In 1966 LaVey founded the Church of Satan and brought satanism and the black mass into the light of day and declared 1966 to be anno satanas- or the first year of the age of satan. From here there were publicly performed satanic marriages as well as his youngest daughter Zeena's first satanic baptism. 

LaVey's desire was to be as anti-Christian as possible with his greatest target being the Catholic church. He wrote the Satanic Bible and wrote essays satanizing main stream Christian writings. His satanic masses became a tantalization to many Hollywood types and money and power brought on many deviant and illegal activities in the name of LaVey and the dark lord.  

A satanic mass is a mockery and a degradation of the traditional Catholic mass. There are altars draped in black, upside down crosses, the drinking of ritualistic blood and the Catholic missal and prayers are reworded to glorify and invite satan. The basis of the satanic mass is to steal consecrated host (the body and blood of Christ used for Catholic Communion) from a Catholic church which is a desecration itself, then they use it in profane acts during the black mass as disrespect to God and Christians of all denominations. Quite frankly, the satanic black mass is the ultimate hate crime toward Christians and most especially......Catholics. 

In recent weeks Christians have been very alarmed because for the second time this year, a public satanic black mass is scheduled to be performed. This time at the Civic Center Music Hall in Oklahoma City, OK. The first time it was scheduled was at the beginning of 2014 in Rochester, NY, however, the outcry against it was so great that it was cancelled. Now, this one is planned for September 21, 2014 and is being put on by Dakhma of Angra Mainyu, the satanic church of  OKC. According to Adam Daniels, a registered sex offender and apparent spokesperson for DAM, the event for September is "a defiant act to show the Catholics that Satanism will stand up and fight for our religious rights." Their first act was to obtain consecrated host to desecrate at the satanic mass. 

On Aug. 20, 2014, Archbishop Paul Coakley of the Catholic Diocese of OKC , filed a lawsuit against the organizers of the black mass stating that the consecrated host that DAM obtained were church property and demanded they be returned to the church. Daniels was named as a defendant in the lawsuit as he told various media outlets that a friend had mailed him the consecrated Host and that it would be desecrated during the ritual by being "stomped on." Since the lawsuit was filed, the Host has supposedly been returned to the archbishop and the lawsuit has been dropped. Daniels has continued to cry out, that the ritual will go on. 

Okay, here is my question. In a world where "hate speech" and "hate acts" supersede the First Amendment and are now viewed as illegal and can carry jail time, how is this ritual allowed to go on? It is bold hate against Christians of all denominations and most especially to Catholics. We live in a world where eating a ham sandwich in front of a mosque is considered an act of hate, but this ritual in OKC is acceptable? How is this possible? Christians are crying out all over the country but shouldn't EVERYONE be just as appalled that such blatant hate towards any group is being allowed at all, let alone publicly? 

The acts and the desire of DAM are open and obvious. They make no bones about their end game and it has nothing to do with religious freedom. It is all about giving the middle finger to Catholics and all other Christian religions, but most especially to God. Have we been so busy kicking God out of our schools, our public places and our lives that we are good with letting satan in? A separation of Church and State in the original terms of our Founding Fathers, I understand, but in their terminology....God was not to be forsaken. On the contrary, our country was founded so that God could be worshiped by Protestants and Catholics alike in the way each chose. The separation was to insure that regardless of the religious beliefs of those in office (Catholic or Protestant), that the rules and the laws would not favor one over the other. However, regardless of religious preference, satan was viewed evil and he was given no voice, let alone a public platform to be worshiped on. I am sure our FF are rolling in their graves at the mockery we have made of their hard work and the God they fought to be able to worship. 

If you can't tell, as both a Catholic and a Christian, I find this gratification of evil not only blasphemous and horrific, but also sinful on the part of Christians, Jews and anyone who worships God but idly stands back and allows it to happen without a fight. The world is becoming more and more evil because good men don't speak up and speak out and are letting themselves be bulldozed and bullied by entities such as DAM and people such as Daniels. This satanic black mass is "hate speech" to end all "hate speech" and if you truly are a fair and unbiased American, then regardless of your religious beliefs.....you MUST take a stand. If this was directed at blacks, Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton would be plastered all over our TV's. If this was against the gay and lesbian community, GLAAD and every celebrity known to man would be publicly speaking out against it and if it was directed at the Muslim community, DAM would be run out of town tarred and feathered while being chastised for their intolerance of the Muslim faith. But no....this is directed at Christians....so where is our support? Where is the celebrity outrage and the chastisement for intolerance? (crickets?)

Perhaps since we have no high profile support, we will do what Christians have done since Jesus said, "Upon this rock I will build my church," we stand up and fight for our right to worship God and to keep satan where he belongs....in hell. If you want your voice to be heard and you want this ultimate act of "hate speech" squelched, then here are the numbers that you can call and let your voice be heard. Don't let satan get this public attention and don't let DAM get the last laugh. Here are the numbers that you can call: Mayor and City Manger of OKC 405-297-2424 and Civic Center Music Hall where mass is to be held 405-297-2584. Please let your voice be heard.