In 1885, Alexis de Tocqueville traveled America as it was coming into its own as a nation. The Frenchman wrote his observations in Democracy in America. This classic provides unique insights into what made America such a rapid success, which he clearly believed to be Christianity. One of his observations describes what he saw happen as the American settlers spread across the continent:

I have known of societies formed by Americans to send out ministers of the Gospel into the new Western states, to found schools and churches there, lest religion should be allowed to die away in those remote settlements, and the rising states be less fitted to enjoy free institutions than the people from whom they came. I met with wealthy New Englanders who abandoned the country in which they were born in order to lay the foundations of Christianity and of freedom on the banks of the Missouri or in the prairies of Illinois.

Following immigration west from the Appalachian cabins to settlements along the Oregon Trail, the American Sunday School Union undertook a great campaign to establish a Sunday school and every new community on the Western frontier. Thousands of churches eventually sprang up from these Sunday schools.

One example of the influence the Sunday school movement had in America frontier life was the Mississippi Valley enterprise. This was a missionary enterprise of the ASSU to “within two years, establish a Sunday school in every destitute place where it is practicable, throughout the Valley of the Mississippi.” The MDE established over 61,000 Sunday schools and enrolled 2,650,000 pupils in fifty years. One missionary, Stephen Paxman, was born with a speech impediment and thus given the nickname “Stuttering Stephen.” Remarkably, he started 1,314 Sunday schools with 83,000 students during his twenty years of service.

Following the westward expansion were the Methodist circuit riders—preachers on horseback who braved the cold weather, lack of roads, and danger of any attacks to bring the gospel to the pioneers. Led by the monumental efforts of Francis Asbury, they travelled almost 300,000 miles on horseback and preached more than 16,000 sermons from 1771 to 1816. It was an army of circuit riders who were inspired to go where the pioneers went. During that time, the Methodists grew in number from only 300 members with four ministers to 200,000 members with 2,000 ministers. The Methodists also gave unprecedented freedom to women, a stepping stone to women’s suffrage a hundred years later.

At the same time, the Baptists sent out their “farmer-preachers.” The Baptists developed systems that made it easy for committed laypeople to enter the ministry and to be deployed quickly where the greatest opportunities were. Most of their preachers had little education and were poorly paid, but they were very in touch with the pioneers’ lives. With an emphasis on the need for personal conversion and salvation from sin through faith in Jesus Christ, these ministers spread the gospel far and wide.

As in the founding of the American colonies, Christians planted many of America’s colleges as a nation moved west. Most notable were Northwestern University in Chicago, found about the Methodist, and the University of California Berkeley, founded by the Presbyterians.

The America we know today would not be nearly as great– not its size, morality, or education– if it were not for the bravery and dedication of pioneer Christian ministers.

©2012 Off the Grid News

…devout thanksgiving…penitent confession of our sins, and humble supplication for pardon, through the merits of our Savior.

Thanksgiving Proclamation (1778)

…to cause virtue and true religion to flourish, to give to all nations amity, peace and concord, and to fill the world with his glory.

Thanksgiving Proclamation (1784)

These United States

The Declaration of Independence (1776) announced the birth of a new confederation, the United States of America. But its first constitution, The Articles of Confederation, wasn’t ratified until March 1, 1781, five years into the seven-year War for Independence. The confederation had neither a chief executive officer nor a court system. The Articles only allowed for a Congress. And the Articles never described the United States as a nation or even a government. They said rather that, “The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other…binding themselves to assist each other…” (Article III). That “union” was supposed to be “perpetual.”

Given this history, it is technically incorrect to speak of anything Congress did under the Articles, let alone before, as having a “national” character. The United States weren’t (note the plural verb) really a nation. Still, Congress spoke for the confederation to the rest of the world, and it spoke with legitimate authority to its member states. It was the forerunner of the Congress we have today.

Thanksgiving in 1777

In the fall of 1777, Congress was working from York, Pennsylvania, while British troops occupied Philadelphia. There had been some recent upturns in America’s fortunes. Benedict Arnold had defeated the British at Saratoga—the first significant American victory—and France was ready to pledge her support to the American cause. With such blessings in mind, Sam Adams and others called on Congress to recommend a confederacy-wide day of thanksgiving. Adams himself wrote the first draft of the proclamation. The Second Continental Congress chose Thursday December 18, 1777 as America’s first thanksgiving day. The Proclamation begins like this:

FOR AS MUCH as it is the indispensable Duty of all Men to adore the superintending Providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with Gratitude their Obligation to him for Benefits received, and to implore such farther Blessings as they stand in Need of: And it having pleased him in his abundant Mercy, not only to continue to us the innumerable Bounties of his common Providence; but also to smile upon us in the Prosecution of a just and necessary War, for the Defense and Establishment of our unalienable Rights and Liberties; particularly in that he hath been pleased, in so great a Measure, to prosper the Means used for the Support of our Troops, and to crown our Arms with most signal success:

The Proclamation takes for granted the doctrine of divine providence. The God acknowledged by Congress governs the world; He ought to be worshipped; He answers prayers; He is abundant in mercy; He honors the prosecution of just wars and gives victory in battle. This isn’t the god of deism or Enlightenment pantheism.

The Proclamation continues:

It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive Powers of these UNITED STATES to set apart THURSDAY, the eighteenth Day of December next, for SOLEMN THANKSGIVING and PRAISE:

Congress had no power to order a day of thanksgiving. But Congress believed it could properly recommend such a day to the States. Congress believed it had legal authority to call America to give thanks to the God who ruled the world.

That at one Time and with one Voice, the good People may express the grateful Feelings of their Hearts, and consecrate themselves to the Service of their Divine Benefactor; and that, together with their sincere Acknowledgments and Offerings, they may join the penitent Confession of their manifold Sins, whereby they had forfeited every Favor; and their humble and earnest Supplication that it may please GOD through the Merits of JESUS CHRIST, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of Remembrance;

The Proclamation here draws upon the judicial theology of Scripture. The American people have sinned; that is, they have broken God’s laws. These sins have cost America any claim upon God’s favor and  blessing. Now the American people need to confess and repent of their sins; and with humble hearts they need to beseech God for forgiveness. Such forgiveness is only possible through the merits of Jesus Christ. These “merits” are the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ to God’s moral law, His atoning substitutionary death on the cross, and His resurrection victory over sin and death. Belief in these merits presupposes belief in His deity. Congress wasn’t ashamed to confess their belief in this judicial theology or to name the name of Christ. They clearly assumed that most Americans shared their faith.

That it may please him graciously to afford his Blessing on the Governments of these States respectively, and prosper the public Council of the whole: To inspire our Commanders, both by Land and Sea, and all under them, with that Wisdom and Fortitude which may render them fit Instruments, under the Providence of Almighty GOD, to secure for these United States, the greatest of all human Blessings, INDEPENDENCE and PEACE: That it may please him, to prosper the Trade and Manufactures of the People, and the Labor of the Husbandman, that our Land may yield its Increase:

God’s providence, as Congress understood it, encompasses the whole of human life:  civil government, military command and service, commerce, manufacturing, agriculture, and the productivity of the earth itself. But Congress recognized as the greatest “human blessings” independence and peace. That is, Congress recognized that these, too, are within God’s providential rule over history and that He bestows them in mercy. Men don’t earn them.

But Congress looked beyond the merely human:

To take Schools and Seminaries of Education, so necessary for cultivating the Principles of true Liberty, Virtue and Piety, under his nurturing Hand; and to prosper the Means of Religion, for the promotion and enlargement of that Kingdom, which consisteth “in Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost.”

Virtue and piety are vague words, appropriate to Roman philosophy as well as Christian theology. The same may be said of “religion.”  But the kingdom that consists in “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 14:17) is very specific. It’s the kingdom of Jesus Christ described in the Gospels and the New Testament epistles. And it is this kingdom’s growth and advancement for which Congress would have the American people pray.

And it is further recommended, That servile Labor, and such Recreation, as, though at other Times innocent, may be unbecoming the Purpose of this Appointment, be omitted on so solemn an Occasion.

This final note may seem strange to most Americans, even to most American Christians. The Proclamation is suggesting that this day of thanksgiving ought to have a Sabbath-like quality. The American people ought to get serious about their thanks and supplications, and to that end they ought to lay aside their normal work and recreations so they can focus properly on their approach to God in Christ. Congress actually believed that all religious forms weren’t equally valid or equally appropriate at all times. They even thought that entertainment and leisure ought to give way to serious religion.

In Later Years

This proclamation of a day of thanksgiving wasn’t a one-time affair. Over the years that followed, through the years of the War and beyond, the Congress of the Confederation continued to call the American people to thanksgiving in very similar language.

The Proclamation of 1778 speaks of God’s “great and manifold mercies on the people of these United States.”  It makes explicit reference to the French alliance and God’s “disposing the heart of a powerful monarch to enter into alliance with us.”  It again recommends “devout thanksgiving…penitent confession of our sins, and humble supplication for pardon, through the merits of our Savior.”  That Savior is Christ.

The Proclamation of 1779, with reference to the settlement of America as well as the recent War, calls Americans to thanksgiving for the “wonders which his goodness has wrought.”  But it places “above all” that He has “diffused the glorious light of the gospel, whereby, through the merits of our gracious Redeemer, we may become the heirs of his eternal glory.”  With this in mind, the American people should pray that God “would grant to his church the plentiful effusions of divine grace, and pour out his holy spirit on all ministers of the gospel; that he would bless and prosper the means of education, and spread the light of Christian knowledge through the remotest corners of the earth….”

“And finally, that he would establish the independence of these United States upon the basis of religion and virtue, and support and protect them in the enjoyment of peace, liberty and safety as long as the sun and moon shall endure, until time shall be no more.”  The language here intertwines the American vision with the language of messianic prophecy (cf. Ps. 72).

The Proclamation of 1780 is similar in its estimation of the “gospel of peace” and in its hope that God would “build up his churches in their most holy faith and to cause the knowledge of Christianity to spread over all the earth.”  The Proclamation of 1781 borrows a phrase from Isaiah and looks forward to the day when the knowledge of God will “cover the earth, as the waters cover the seas” (Isa. 11:7). And the Proclamation of 1782 speaks of “the practice of true and undefiled religion, which is the great foundation of public prosperity and national happiness.”  The allusion is to James 1:27.

The Proclamations of 1783 and 1784 contain much the same language, though by those years the War was over and emphasis was shifting from repentance and the need for divine aid in war toward thanksgiving for victory and prayer for the success of God’s kingdom among all nations. The American sense of mission was already taking deep root.

Conclusion

Much has been said and done in the last fifty years to downplay the role of the Christian faith in our nation’s history and civil government. The disparagement of Thanksgiving is one small part of that secular campaign. We call the holiday (holy day?)  “Turkey Day.” We use it mainly to kick off a materialistic binge of Yuletide consumption.

But there was a time when the American Congress called for serious, heartfelt thanksgiving to the Christian God and devout prayers for His merciful intervention. Of course, America was then in the middle of a devastating war for her God-given rights and liberties. War does strange things to people. Maybe when we are at war and our lives and rights are in danger… we’ll turn to God for help. Maybe.

Our forefathers certainly did.

©2012 Off the Grid News

Washington was sixty-four years old when he decided to end his political life. Besides, he was committed to a government where power changed hands frequently and peacefully, so he did not want to continue in office too long. This peaceful transfer of power may well have been his greatest achievement. And we see it repeated every four years when we elect, then inaugurate, a new president.

At the time, America was the first nation in modern history to try an election-based form of democratic government, known as a constitutional republic. The rules by which the government operated were set up in the Constitution, and the people elected their representatives. By stepping down after two terms, Washington proved that a person of character can avoid being corrupted by power.

By this time, Washington had achieved his major goals. He had helped create a united nation that would endure. He has successfully established the role of the federal government. He brought peace to the frontier, kept American out of European wars, and had established the nation’s capital. As he hoped, the nation was growing into a union rather than a coalition of separate states. Therefore, he decided not to run for reelection in 1796. His decision set another precedent – that presidents should serve no more than two terms, only broken by FDR during World War II.

As one of his last public acts, in late 1796, Washington delivered a farewell address Congress. In it, he urged all Americans to remain devoted to the American union. He also counseled them to avoid political parties and “permanent alliances” with “any portion of the foreign world.” He believed that foreign alliances would tie the hands of the nation and prevent the government from acting in its own best interest.

The election of 1796 would provide the next great test for this great experiment called the United States of America. The Jeffersonians obviously favored Thomas Jefferson to succeed Washington is president. The Federalists favored John Adams, Washington’s vice president for the last eight years. Alexander Hamilton, however, did not like Adams. So he secretly worked against Adams on behalf of another man, without success. When the Electoral College votes were tallied, Adams had seventy-one, Jefferson had sixty-eight, and Hamilton’s candidate only had 59. At that time, the Constitution stated that the candidate with the most votes would become the President and the one the second most votes will become Vice-President. As results Adam thus became President and Jefferson Vice-President, even though they were from opposite political parties.

On Inauguration Day, March 4, 1797, Washington, Adams, and Jefferson entered Congress Hall in Philadelphia – then the nation’s capital. There, John Adams took the oath of office as the new president of the United States. Afterward, as they got ready to leave, Adams stepped aside at the door to allow Washington to go through first. But Washington was well aware of the historic significance of the moment. He stopped and asked Adams to leave first. After all, he said, Adams was now president of the United States, and Washington was now just a private citizen. Adams led, followed by Jefferson, and Washington went last.

This was the first time in human political history that power was transferred between two common citizens without the death or violent overthrow of the person losing power. The Constitution had passed its first crucial test primarily because of George Washington’s commitment to it into the spirit of the American Revolution.

©2012 Off the Grid News

Washington is that a principle maintained by the United States military to the present day – namely that the military would remain ever the servant of the people and of its big government, and never suppressor. But there is still the issue of unifying the new nation.

One of Washington’s officers proposed a solution. In May of 1782, he wrote General Washington suggesting that the Army march on Congress and install the General is the new king of America. Washington was shocked. He wrote back that he viewed the idea “with abhorrence,” and ordered the officer to “banish these thoughts from your mind.”

About a week after the last British soldiers left New York City, Washington said goodbye to his officers started the journey home to Mount Vernon. He was now fifty-one years old. It first entered military service thirty years earlier. Since then, he lived most of his life in the public eye.

On the way home from New York, Washington stopped at Annapolis, where the Congress was then meeting, on December 23, 1783. The group had been frightened out of Philadelphia by soldiers threatening to take action on the back pay due them. Washington’s resignation as commander-in-chief of the army was delivered in the old Annapolis Statehouse.

Watching the road ahead to Congress, telling them of his plans to resign and asking them “whether it be in writing, or at an audience.” Following the instructions Congress returned to him, he presented himself at noon before the elegant brick statehouse which overlooked the harbor. He took his seat before the eighteen Congressmen. By arrangement, they did not stand when he entered, nor did they even remove their hats. Washington was to bow to them upon entering and leaving. It was all to demonstrate the supremacy of elected officials – Congress – over the military authority – Washington.

The whispers of the spectators were hushed by the Secretary’s command, “Silence!” One of Washington’s former aides, James McHenry, described how the group was transfixed by Washington’s parting words:

“The past, the present, the manner, the occasion, all conspired to render it a spectacle inexpressibly solemn and affecting.”

The President of the Congress gave Washington the arranged cue, “Sir, the United States in Congress assembled are prepared to receive your communications.” Washington rose and bowed respectfully. His remarks only required three minutes:

“I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last solemn act of my official life by commending the interest of our dearest country to Almighty God, and those who have the superintendence of them to His holy blessing. Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theater of action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body under whose orders I have so long acted, I hereby offer my commission and take my leave of all the employments of public life.”

Washington bowed to the members. The legislators remain seated, but they all tip their hats as he walked out of the chamber, down the hall, and out on the pillared porch for Francis Street where his horse was waiting. Washington wanted depart immediately in order to make it home to Mount Vernon by the next day, which was Christmas Eve. Benjamin West, an American artist, told of a conversation he had with King George III. The king asked him what George Washington would do when America won the war. West said he supposed Washington would return to his farm. “If he does that,” the King remarked, “he’ll be the greatest man in the world.”

Washington’s act was very important in American history. It laid the foundation for civilian rule – that is, the rule of elected officials. There would be no military ruler King. Washington had rejected many offers to become the new king of America. Now, all he wanted to do was go into retirement and live a quiet life at home. He arrived in time to spend Christmas with his family.

©2012 Off the Grid News

The Tea Act of 1773 actually lowered the price of tea to the colonists. However, the effect of the act was unexpected. The act set in motion a chain of events which would soon lead open revolt. When the Townshend Acts were repealed in 1770, an import tax was kept on tea as a way to remind colonists that Parliament continued to believe in its authority to make laws affecting the Colonies, and specifically to tax them. As King George put it, there must “always [be] the one tax to keep up the right.” What he meant was that without some form of taxation, the British would lose control forever.

By 1773, the British East India Company was nearly bankrupt. That company had been started in order to grow and export tea from another British colony, India. But they had been much more successful growing tea than selling it. By 1773, the company had over 18,000,000 pounds of tea on their hands, looking for a place to get rid of it.

Parliament thought that if it made East Indian tea less expensive, it would sell more of it. Therefore, the Tea Act changed the tax laws by letting the East India Company ship its tea directly to the colonies through its own agents, bypassing American distributors. The British hoped the cost of tea to the average American would go down and consumption would go up.

This act angered colonial merchants who could make a good living from importing tea, either legally or about smuggling it past British customs officials. Other merchants joined the protests. If Britain could grant a monopoly on all tea sold in America to the East India Company, it could grant others. As one American merchant wrote:

Would not opening of an East India House in America encourage all the great companies in Great Britain to do the same?

Merchants stirred up colonial radicals by claiming the Tea Act of 1773 was just another sneaky way for the British to tax tea. But the common man needed little prompting to distrust the British.

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Crowds rioted in colonial streets. In Annapolis, a tea ship was burned. Other tea ships arriving New York and Philadelphia were turned around without even being in the unloaded. In Boston, the royal governor was determined to have the ships unloaded and would not let them leave. The colonists refused to unload the tea. On the night of December 16, 1773, a group of colonists disguised as Indians boarded the two ships in Boston Harbor and dumped their cargoes overboard, destroying 10,000 pounds of tea.

British reaction to what colonists called the Boston Tea Party was swift and cruel. In 1774, Parliament quickly passed a series of laws that Americans called the Intolerable Acts. The new laws required the Port of Boston to be closed until the city paid the East India Company for the lost tea. This was a tremendous hardship for a colony that was dependent upon foreign trade and fishing for its economic well-being.

In addition, the colonial government was restructured. The colonists were granted even less say in how they were governed. One half of the Massachusetts assembly, the upper house, was no longer to be elected by the people but was to be appointed by the king. Only one town meeting would be allowed each year. Royal officials charged with offenses could be tried in Britain, where they were likely to be found innocent. Finally the British commander in Boston was allowed to house his troops where ever he saw fit. This new quartering act was far worse than the old one. Troops could be housed in private residences against the will of their owners.

In September 1774, delegates from across the colonies met in Philadelphia to decide on a common course of action. This gathering would later be called the First Continental Congress. Every colony except Georgia was represented, and her legislature sent word that it would support whatever action was taken. Among the delegates were George Washington, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Patrick Henry. Some delegates, like Samuel Adams, ready to break away from Great Britain immediately. But many of the delegates remain completely loyal to the king. They believe the colonies should obey the laws without protesting. Still others try to think of ways to persuade the British government compromise. They still hoped that the king would listen to their pleas, even if Parliament would not. But they were soon to be greatly disappointed.

The delegates to the First Continental Congress sent a petition to King George asking him to intervene on their behalf. In the petition, they asserted their rights to “life, liberty and property.” Although they rejected Parliament’s authority over them, they still vowed loyalty to the King.

In spite of this temporary reprieve to war, the die had been cast. After being elected as one of the seven delegates from Virginia, forty-two-year-old George Washington wrote, “Shall we sit and see one province after another fall prey to despotism?”

©2012 Off the Grid News

Instead, the Virginia delegates met fifty miles inland, where they hope to be protected. Everyone knew that the British would send reinforcements to Boston in the aftermath of the uprisings, and more fighting would take place. Plus they were also well aware that there were colonists opposed to breaking from Great Britain. These were not safe times.

Patrick Henry, age thirty-eight, did not agree with those who were content with personal safety. He was certain the British would eventually overwhelm Massachusetts patriots unless the other colonies came to their aid. In what became one of the most famous speeches in the history of America, Henry presented resolutions for equipping the Virginia militia to go to the aid of Massachusetts. Both thirty-one-years-old Thomas Jefferson and forty-three-years-old George Washington were thrilled by the fiery speech. It ended with the following plea for immediate action:

Gentlemen may cry peace, peace. But there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?

Henry’s attitude was that of a condemned galley slave. His back was bent as though under the weight of approaching death. After a solemn pause, he raised his eyes toward Heaven. Before his entranced audience he held up his crossed wrists, bound by imaginary though palpable chains. Then, he slowly prayed in words rising to a fever pitch. Henry bent his body backward, his chained hands raised over his head.

            Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take …

He clenched his right fist as though holding a knife pointed at his heart. As he drove the imaginary dagger into his chest, he proclaimed:

… but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

They pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor so that we could be free!

As young Patrick Henry shouted the word “liberty,” his imaginary chains were broken and his arms set free. He stood erect and defiant, his face aglow. And then he waited as the word “liberty” echoed throughout the church.

As one witness later reported, “His attitude made him appear a magnificent incarnation of Freedom.” Another listener was so overcome by Henry’s powerful speech that he exclaimed, “Let me be buried on this spot.”

The resolutions passed, and Henry was appointed commander of the Virginia forces. The next year, 1776, he became the first elected governor of Virginia.

In many ways Patrick Henry’s personality made him a counterbalance to the refined logic of Jefferson, the well-tempered industry of Franklin, and the unyielding honor of Washington. By many accounts, he had been an idler throughout his younger life (and some would say a derelict). Though all in his family recognized his brilliance, by the time he had reached the age of ten they knew he would never be a farmer. At age twenty-one his father set him up in a business that he bankrupted shortly thereafter. Finally, the general public disgust in Hanover and pressure from his young family (he had married at the age of eighteen) caused him to study for six weeks and take the bar exam, which he passed, and begin work as a lawyer.

After rising to recognition as a lawyer, Henry began to earn the reputation as a firebrand for liberty. He wasn’t just a speech maker, however. At the outbreak of the revolution, he returned to his native state and lead militia in defense of Virginia’s gunpowder store, when the royal Governor spirited it aboard a British ship. Henry forced the Governor Lord Dunmore to pay for the powder at fair price.

After 1776, Henry was re-elected for three terms as governor of Virginia, succeeded by Thomas Jefferson, and then elected again to the office in 1784. Patrick Henry was a strong critic of the constitution proposed in 1787. He was in favor of the strongest possible government for the individual states and a weak federal government.

©2012 Off the Grid News

And with that we note with honor the recent death of V.Z. Lawton, a survivor of the bombing and a man who resisted the herd impulse to ignore his own eyes and ears in the face of authority.  V.Z., eighty-one years old, passed away on July 23, 2012, after succumbing to cancer.  Few men can say that they have been truly tested.  Fewer still can say that they prevailed.  V.Z. did both many times, and cracked jokes in between.

V.Z. faced his mortality with a determination and hope that still shined from his eyes and with a lack of fear that defined his presence on this earth.  He had confronted death before.  On April 19, 1995, seventeen years ago, V.Z. was sitting at his desk in the office of Housing and Urban Development in the A.P. Murrah Federal Building when the structure began to shake, the lights went out, and something fell from the ceiling and struck him in the head, knocking him out cold.  When he regained consciousness, he saw that the floor had collapsed to within inches of his desk.  He stood over the stilled maelstrom below, half the building lie in ruins, crushed bodies beneath.  He turned around and immediately went to the aid of his injured co-workers.  He guided, carried, and led them down several flights of stairs and broke open a warped steel door with his shoulder.  After getting checked out at the hospital, he began walking home.  He picked glass out of his body for months.

He had been lucky, and he knew it.  He lost dozens of friends and spent the next several weeks, like much of Oklahoma City, attending funerals.  The bombing was blamed on Tim McVeigh; the tool of destruction was a truck bomb parked in the street.  As this narrative acquired momentum from the FBI, V.Z. compared it to his own.  He had been in the building.  He felt the building shake.  When the lights went out, he could still see because of the sunlight coming through the windows.  The intact windows.  That did not square with the official story.  It had been several seconds between the building shaking, the lights going out and V.Z. being knocked out.  Before the windows shattered.  Of course the official story being correct and true, the first indication that hell was being unleashed upon the Murrah building should have been the windows shattering.  The FBI was putting the cart before the horse.  V.Z. now knew he was being lied to.  And you don’t lie to V.Z.  He could take the truth, as he proved time and time again.

Likewise, Oklahoma State Representative Charles Key began to heed the questions of his constituents who had similar questions.  Key had lost his former secretary in the bombing, and her family made him promise to honor the loss of their loved one with the truth.  As Charles Key began to make headlines with questions and evidence that pointed to a cover-up, V.Z. expressed a healthy skepticism of these notions, politicians being what they were.  But as it became clear that the government at every level was sticking to an unreal hypothesis, V.Z. met with the upstart legislator.  Rep. Key must have passed muster, for they agreed to join efforts, and the Oklahoma Bombing Investigation Committee (OKBIC) was born.

Also joining the OKBIC was local businessman Dale Phillips and retired Air Force Lt. Col. George Wallace.  They believed in the system, and they wanted it to work.  Much maligned by the local press and ignored by the national media, the OKBIC was supported by donations from concerned people around the globe.  They hired private investigators to compile evidence and eyewitness testimony and lobbied the government at every level to look at the bombing in the light of the true facts.  To little or no avail, they tried to prompt the system to fulfill its duty.  But they recorded the true history of the bombing, so that it will not be lost when posterity, no longer invested in the cover-up, tells the tales of these days.

There are few people who can withstand the condemnation of authority, the censure of their peers, the mockery of the press and the promise of ease that comes with accepting an illusion.  Disheartening is the complete moral failure of our appointed protectors in the face of atrocity.  It’s demoralizing to realize that the world we thought we lived in—the world we want to live in—is actually a much darker place.  And the bad guys seem to win, time and time again.

But the presence and efforts of the brave souls is the ideal we should strive for.  Theirs is the hope that embodies our best instincts.  If justice was not possible, they would have all been extinguished from this existence long ago.

After being foiled by the political machinery in Oklahoma and in congress, the OKBIC decided to record their findings in The Final Report of the Oklahoma Bombing Investigation Committee.  It was published three weeks before 9/11, too late for its conclusions to avert disaster.  V.Z. traveled to New York City with his wife Betty and our producer and narrator Chris Emery.  They gained an audience with the “Jersey Widows,” those bereaved wives who almost single-handedly forced President George W. Bush to convene an investigative panel on 9/11.  Although they were likewise deprived of justice, V.Z. was able to impart his experiences and wisdom to these initiates, and their shared stories of cover-up, lies, and official malfeasance rhymed with a precision that indicated a purpose and methodology that hides behinds the mask of chaos.

And as the survivors and rescue workers of 9/11 increasingly succumb to the ailments that plague their bodies, the realization comes home that we are being robbed of our first generation of truth seekers.  When the filmmakers were in New York City to record and commemorate the anniversary of 9/11 in 2009, we interviewed first responder John Citara.  Discarded by the government that was only too pleased to expose him to lethal toxins from Ground Zero, we are reminded that ultimately we are viewed as chattel by this government, especially when our voice or existence becomes inconvenient.

2012 has not been a kind year to the first generation of OKC truth seekers.  On April 30^th of this year, we lost Hoppy Heidelberg.  Hoppy served on the federal grand jury that handed down indictments to Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols.  After requesting the testimony of demolitions experts, the building’s architect, and the never-released security videotapes, he was dismissed without cause.  The FBI had already been paying not-so-nice visits to Hoppy’s home because he was asking questions about quality of evidence being presented.  Hoppy, perhaps hewn of that same strong oak, refused to back down.  For his bravery, Hoppy was rewarded with armed intimidation, harassment, the loss of his business, and the fear of association that often accompanies those lone voices in the wilderness.

These men will not be honored by officialdom, because officialdom was found lacking where they showed their strength.  The hypocrisy would be too much to bear.  But we can gain inspiration from their actions and attitudes.  They refused to back down in the face of a lie, no matter the consequences.  Should we all be so fortunate as to pass this test with our honor intact.

And being true friends to these heroes, we honor them in passing.  Thank you, V.Z.  Your bravery and integrity shaped history.  Your charm and humor changed encouraged me and every other person fortunate enough to seek your wisdom.  And if we cannot expect justice, we can record the deeds of these men so present and future heroes may know they are never alone, and despite the quibbling of knaves, fidelity to the truth has much greater rewards.

Holland Vandennieuwenhof is a writer and producer for Free Mind Films.  He also hosts a weekly radio talk show broadcast on 19 FM and AM stations, The Free Mind Report.  He resides in Oklahoma City.

Most wouldn’t recognize him as the politicians that had his fill of Washington and his constituents. When asked by some voters what he would do if they didn’t reelect him he answered, “You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.” As one historian noted, “They didn’t – and so he did.”

The real David Crockett was born in a small cramped cabin on August 17, 1786, in the wilderness of eastern Tennessee (still know as Virginia at that time). Born into poverty, life was difficult in the wilderness. There were no schools, no education, no books, and no churches. His family finally managed to open the Crockett Tavern, an overnight stop for travelers going from Virginia to the West.

Davy, as he came to be known, was mesmerized by the stories travelers passing through told. At the age of twelve he joined himself to a Dutchman for a cattle drive. Along the way, the Dutchman was very kind to Davy, and once in Virginia, asked him to stay with him. But Davy’s desire to get home got the better of him. He took off, not yet a teenager, and traveled 200 miles alone back to his family.

By the age of sixteen, Davy was sensitive concerning his lack of education and the fact that he could neither read nor write. Desiring to learn, but too old to start again in school, he took a job where he worked two days a week for board and attended school for four days. After six months, Davy learned to sign his name and could accomplish a few simple math problems and very simple reading. With this limited knowledge, Davy then set out to find a wife.

Within a short time, he found and won the affection of a pretty Irish girl. Soon thereafter they married, and with fifteen borrowed dollars, settled in a log cabin. Still living in the wilderness, game was plentiful, and Davy was an outstanding shot with his musket. They had food and cloth, as his wife was handy with a loom, that provided them the necessities of life, although still very primitive. After frequent moves, they finally settled in 1813 in what is today Franklin County, Tennessee.

When news of the Creek massacre at Fort Mims in Alabama reached Crockett, he decided that the settlers must get organized to mount a defense. Among the first to enlist, he joined a volunteer army under the command of General Andrew Jackson and was placed him in charge of a scouting party. During the fighting, Jackson’s army was very poorly provisioned, almost to starvation numerous times. Had it not been for Crockett and his skills as a woodman and rifleman, able to find and kill game, the troops would surely have starved.

When he returned home from the Creek War, Crockett found his wife near death, and soon she left him alone with two children. Davy then met and married a widow with two children. Desiring less crowded surroundings in which to live, as by this time, many settlers were moving to his part of Tennessee, Davy and his wife and four children moved about eighty miles west, to what is today Giles County, Tennessee.

Within a few years, Davy had become well known among the locals and was called on to be what amounted to a justice of the peace. It is said that when asked to run for the legislature, he replied that he would if he knew what one was. His personality, storytelling, and honesty convinced most people he was their man, but he still lost – by two votes.

By the next election, Crockett was no longer green and was elected in 1827. Once in Washington, he introduced himself by saying, “I am the same David Crockett, fresh from the backwoods, half horse, half alligator, a little touched with the snapping turtle… I can whip my weight in wildcats and if any gentleman pleases, for a ten dollar bill, he can throw in a panther too.”

He was well liked and people loved to listen to him speak of his adventures. Several times he was entertained by President John Quincy Adams at the White House. His service as a Congressman was outstanding, with even his opponents acknowledging he couldn’t be bribed or forced to vote for anything he did know was right.

During his second term in office, his former fellow Indian fighter Andrew Jackson became President. He was supportive of Jackson until they came into conflict over measures Crockett could not agree with. Consequently, this brought him the censure of his constituency and defeat in his next election. Upon losing the election, Crockett said, ”If they won’t elect me with my opinions, I can’t help it.”

After returning home, Crockett penned his autobiography and set out on a tour of eastern cities in 1834. When he arrived in Philadelphia, he was met by a crowd of five thousand, and here was presented with a rifle that would go on to replace “Old Betsy,” as well as serve him well at the Alamo. A larger crowd met in New York City, and in Jersey City he participated in a shooting match that proved his skill was no myth.

A year earlier, in 1833, Americans who had settled in Texas determined to seek their independence and separate from the Mexico. On December 10, 1835, they succeeded in capturing the town of San Antonio, driving the Mexican army, commanded by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, out of Texas. Near the center of town stood the Alamo, an old Spanish mission that had been converted into a fort, with a garrison of 150 Texans. The Texans were commanded jointly by Colonels William Barret Travis and James Bowie.

Infuriated by his defeat, Santa Anna decided to take his revenge at the Alamo in February of 1836. At about the same time, Colonel Crockett and four of his “Tennessee boys” arrived at the Alamo. They were there as volunteers, to fight for Texas against tyranny, wherever it may have been. Crockett and his few men, combined with those under the command of Travis and Bowie, numbered just 188. These patriots were ready at the Alamo to take on the force under Santa Anna, now marching in their direction with 5,000 troops.

On February 23, 1836, the fight at the Alamo began. Others at the Alamo during the siege were some of the families of the defenders, including the wife and daughter of Captain Almeron Dickinson, as well as a few servants. James Bowie, present during the battle as well, had been stricken with typhoid pneumonia and could not move from his cot.

The determined defenders repulsed them the Mexican troops twice, using the last of their cannon and musket fire. As the third attack came at the now battered north wall, Colonel Travis, leading his men, was shot through his forehead, falling across a cannon, dying instantly. Passing by where Travis lay, the Mexicans stormed into the plaza. Overwhelmed, and with no time to load their muskets against such a large force of Mexicans, the defenders used the muskets as clubs. Colonel Crockett, likewise using his musket as a club, was killed as the attackers, now with reinforcements, stormed the south wall and headed for the chapel, where those Texans inside were killed.

But the spirit of men like Davy Crockett lived on. Three weeks after the defeat at the Alamo, Santa Anna savagely ordered the massacre of 300 Texas prisoners. On April 21, 1836, just forty-six days after the fall of the Alamo, about 800 angered Texans and other American volunteers under the command of General Sam Houston launched an all out attack on Santa Anna and his force of 1,300 men at San Jacinto, shouting “Remember the Alamo!

They overran the Mexican army in a few minutes, killing 630, while only suffering eight losses themselves. In the battle, Santa Anna was captured. Texas was now free and a new republic was born. Texas acted as an independent nation for about ten years before being annexed into the United States on December 29, 1845.

Davy Crockett, who was born on August 17, 1786, died on March 6, 1836, at the young age of 49. He was then and still remains an outstanding American, statesman, and folklore hero. On the day he died, he wrote a letter to his daughter during the siege, saying not to worry about him, for he was with his friends.

Perhaps this one American hero who lived and died in a manner even larger than the legend that followed him, for he stood firm in his beliefs both in life and in death.

In his 1955 memoirs, Harry Truman dedicated just three pages to what is still remembered as the most devastating two days of warfare in human history. He wrote:

I regard the bomb as a military weapon and never had a doubt that it should be used. The top military advisers to the President recommended its use, and when I talked to Churchill he unhesitatingly told me that he favored the use of the atom bomb if it might aid the end of the war.

President Truman never wavered in his belief that his decision was the correct one. The devastating effects of the two bombs convinced the Japanese that unconditional surrender was their only option and spared tens of thousands of American soldiers from death had a frontal assault been attempted on Japan proper. General Marshall had gone so far as to estimate an invasion of the islands of Japan could cost up to half a million American lives.

On July 26, 1945, Truman issued an ultimatum to the Japanese it what came to be known as the Potsdam Proclamation. There was no mention of a nuclear weapon, but the decree warned Japan to either surrender or face “prompt and utter destruction.” Two days later the Japanese premiere responded that the ultimatum was “unworthy of public notice.” From there it was inevitable that the weapons would be used.

After the war there were a number who questioned Truman’s decisions. Naturally, they were left-leaning pacifists. Dwight D. Eisenhower revealed that he had expressed concerns before the bomb was employed, telling then President Truman of his “belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary.”

Many revisionists contend the dropping of the bomb had far more to do with sending a warning to Russia than ending the war with Japan. The coalition of Truman, Churchill, and Stalin was strictly one of necessity. But with the bomb, there was no need to include Russia in the Pacific conflict. With the fall of Germany, Truman was rightly convinced that Russia was no longer an ally. Communist Russia, he believed, was sure to be a post-war adversary. About that he was more than correct.

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Even if leaving Russia out of ending the war with Japan was a motivation, there is still no doubt the cost Americans faced in bringing an end to Japan’s unreasonable holding out to the end. The campaign in Okinawa left almost 13,000 Americans dead and soldiers’ minds reeling with memories of Japanese kamikaze suicide tactics. It was warfare as never seen before, and many feared more of the same for at least another year if a conventional assault on Japan was mounted.

There was also a bit of political reality that played in the background. Emperor Hirohito was more than the leader of Japan. He was its religious icon as well. Truman wanted a way to bring about the surrender of the Japanese army without having to assault the Emperor himself. He was almost bound by public opinion at home to settle for nothing less than unconditional surrender. By dropping the bombs, Truman accomplished ending the war while allowing the Emperor to remain on as titular head of Japan, a position he held until his death in 1989.

The truth is there was one reason for the use of the bomb. Though it had been tested successfully there was no way to be sure the bomb would even work in an air drop. Had the Potsdam Proclamation been made and then followed by a failure of the bomb, the results would have been devastating to an American military and civilian population worn down by five years of conflict that cost almost half a million American lives.

Much has been learned about the long-term effects of radiation that were not fully understood in 1945. The nuclear option is really no option at all in a world where a number of players hold the same cards. Because of that, the major players on the world stage have all but put that card away. What we need now fear are the wildcards like Iran that are not trying to end a war but rather start one.

©2012 Off the Grid News

When Earhart’s plane disappeared on July 3, 1937, President Roosevelt ordered a massive naval search. It lasted one week, cost millions of dollars, and covered approximately 250,000 miles. But Earhart, the navigator Fred Noonan, and her Lockheed Electra aircraft had simply disappeared.

Officials concluded that Earhart had run out of gas and downed somewhere in the ocean. In the years since then, however, the official story has repeatedly been challenged. One of the most persistent and intriguing of the alternative possibilities recast Earhart and Noonan as spies for the United States. According to this scenario, their round-the-world adventure was merely a cover, with their actual mission being to take pictures of Japanese installations in the Pacific. In some versions of this story, they were shot down over the Pacific; and in other versions, they were captured and executed.

The origins of the spy theory originated in 1943 in the movie Flight for Freedom starring Rosalind Russell as the famous aviator and Fred McMurray as the navigator she falls in love with. The movie was pure fiction, but it captured the imagination of the public and of generations of journalists, historians, and aviation buffs. Since then, many have worked to prove it more than fiction.

One of the leading proponents of the spy story was CBS reporter Fred Goerner. In 1960, he came across a newspaper article about a woman who said that while she was a girl on Saipan Island, she witnessed the plane crash in the harbor. She also said she has seen a white woman and man taken into Japanese custody after the crash.

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Goerner spent six years investigating the matter, interviewing hundreds of the islanders, who claimed to have seen Earhart and Noonan. He concluded that the two landed somewhere in the Marshall Islands, were picked up by a Japanese fishing boat, and taken to the Japanese Pacific military headquarters on Saipan. But some of the reporter’s evidence doesn’t stand up closer investigation: the remains in an unmarked grave turned out to be of a non-Caucasian woman and parts of the twin engine airplane he recovered turned out to be made in Japan.

Even more problematic were the contradictory stories of the islanders. Some claimed they saw only a woman. Others said they saw a man and a woman. Some saw the plane wrecked, while others saw it undamaged. Some claim the flyers were executed, but others said they were imprisoned for many years before they died. Even so, there were many unanswered questions about the mysterious disappearance.

Randall Brink spent thirteen years analyzing documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and his conclusion was the same as Goerner: Amelia Earhart was a spy. According to Brink, Earhart’s trip began as a publicity stunt but later evolved into a spy mission. As a personal friend of the Roosevelts, she did not hesitate to approach the President for help in arranging for refueling stops during her trip. And the president could not overcome the temptation to use the trip for military intelligence.

Brink’s detractors argue that his evidence is circumstantial and that he grossly overstated his case. And some of the speculation was indeed off the wall. Brink even went so far as to say the captured Earhart had become Tokyo Rose, the infamous wartime disc jockey who tried to get GIs to defect. At one point, Earhart’s husband made a special trip to the front lines to listen to a Tokyo Rose broadcast and said he would stake his life that it was not his wife’s voice.

Everyone loves a good conspiracy, but this is probably not one of the ones that can be justified by facts. Earhart was an ardent pacifist, likely to have resisted anything to do with the military. Beyond that, there were plenty of other motivations for the trip besides spying— chief among them money. Her disappearance can be explained without resorting to spy stories. The trip from New Guinea to Howland Island was notoriously dangerous. The island was tiny, remote, and barely above sea level. Under the best of circumstances, it was difficult to find.

None of this proves that Earhart was not a spy. But it is worth noting that most of her biographers have concluded she was simply an explorer. Nevertheless, the disappearance of Amelia Earhart still has a place in the American imagination.

©2012 Off the Grid News