This week we continue our study of the dispersal of the apostles after Pentecost. This week, we also have a rather unusual situation, simply put two for one? Well, not exactly what we’re looking at here would be Simon and Jude who both were two of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ. They’re known for their work as  missionaries often in Persia. It is written that Simon was often called the zealot and was considered to have been a former Jewish nationalist revolutionary. Jude is sometimes confused with Judas Iscariot but was likely a relative of Jesus. Now Jude, he is relieved to have been a brother of Saint James the greater making him a cousin of Christ, the epistle Jude in the New Testament is traditionally attributed to him and here again we run into the word tradition which states that Simon and Jude traveled together on a mission to spread the gospel. Tradition holds that they ministered in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and ancient Persia, which is now the modern Iran.We wish to be very careful here how we put all this and remind you that we’re trying our best to be as accurate as we possibly can. Records indicate that the two of them together suffered martyrdom in Persia after being arrested because they refused to deny Christ, and of course they would not worship pagan deities. 

Now let’s focused for a moment on the apostle Simon. He was one of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ. There seems to be a debate as to whether or not the name, zealot distinguishes him as a person who opposed the Roman occupation or was it because he was so zealous about the gospel and his dedication to Jesus Christ. Either way that’s a pretty good description and one he could be proud of. We always run across little bits and pieces as we do the research for these blogs and one that caught my eye was that Simon is mentioned in the New Testament only in the list of the 12 apostles such as in Matthew 10:4, mark 3:18, Luke 6:15 and Acts 1:13. Remember the wedding in Cana, according to tradition, Simon was the groom at the wedding in Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine. There are those who believe having witnessed such a miracle only solidified his commitment to follow Jesus Christ. Now we will return to the subject of his preaching and Martyrdom. It is written and tradition states that he preached the gospel in various places, including Egypt, North Africa and Persia, it is also written that different descriptions of his death included crucifixion or being sawed in half. I guess we can wrap this up on Simon by saying that he still remains one of the more mysterious disciples of Christ with much of his story coming from non-biblical tradition rather than direct spiritual accounts. One thing that is obvious here is that the power of God through Jesus Christ enabled Simon to become a powerful voice for Jesus Christ and his ministry.

Jude and Thaddeus, two different men are the same person? Well, the answer seems to be that. Yes Jude and Thaddeus are widely believed to be the same person, one of the original 12 apostles of Jesus. And there is some evidence that has raised some debate as to the identification of such due to inconsistencies in the gospel accounts. But we will not get into that. What we look at is the evidence for Jude and Thaddeus being the same person. In Matthew and Mark in the gospels Thaddeus is included as a disciple. The name is used there, however in the corresponding list in the gospel of Luke and Acts, it’s Judas son of James, however, many of the early Christians and scholars have concluded that these are the same individual. Remember Judas Iscariot the apostle that betrayed Jesus, well again the scholars believed that the names Jude, or Thaddeus, which, by the way is an Aramaic word meaning “heart” or “courageous” but they used these to distinguish this disciple from the one who had betrayed Jesus. Now there are more explanations, but I think I’ll just try to conclude this by simply bringing it down to this… the linking of the name, Jude and Thaddeus was used to distinguish this apostle from Judas Iscariot. To kinda wrap it up if we can and not be too confused… the Jude who traveled with Simon to Peugeot was Saint Jude sometimes known as Jude Thaddeus, also known as the apostle Jude. After Christ’s Ascension Jude traveled to Mesopotamia while Simon went to Egypt and they eventually met and joined forces in Persia. As to be expected, their preaching in Persia was met with intense opposition from local rulers and priests, who then released charmed serpents against them. However, it is written the apostles performed miracles with the serpents, turning them on their masters, leading to the conversion of many Persians and their king, and it was here in Persia, just as Simon was, Jude was also martyred.

Please join us next week as we follow The Few as they take the Good News to The Many.

Life is Good

jk

There are times  that I find myself alone on the Porch  and as we age it is times like this that we tend to reflect more on what was. One danger in this is that we turn to self reflection… an old man’s check sheet so to speak. With me it is always about missed opportunities and that leads to better things.It is here that I messed up often. One thing that always is at the top of my list would be my not understanding the value of working harder in school, it wasn’t until my late thirties that I developed this attitude of wanting to learn more about things. Now let me preface this before writing this…I had a good home and good parents but I was never encouraged to do well in school. The importance of education beyond the ABC’s and simple math was never a subject of conversation in our home, sad to say just getting by was ok. We went to church and Sunday School every week, but I didn’t know why, it was just something good people did. Well I know better now… and I am ashamed to admit even in the mist of attending church regularly I didn’t see God. Oh I knew all the Sunday School stories, I was an acolyte, active in church services and in time knowledgable of doctrine and precepts of the liturgy in the church but I did not know God… When I think of missed opportunities, this is the one I regret most. I started writing this not knowing where It would go, kinda like I lived most of my life. 

According to the word counter there are 274 words on the page and I will add just a few more. Life is nothing more than a series of opportunities that present choices and require action. Some we grab but most are left to linger in indifference because of the effort they require. I end all my Pew Blogs with the tag line…Life is Good…and I agree with that! Ponder This! … “Life is God” …

The giver and sustainer of all life. Grab the opportunity to put GOD in your life and all those opportunities will fall into place.

Kurt   

As a Layman I always find and learn different things when I go a little bit beyond the word. Before we really get started on this weeks blog let’s examine the fact that Nathaniel is called Bartholomew because that’s his family name. Meaning he is the son of Tlmai and Nathaniel is his name. I will repeat that. To clear this up just a little bit, Betholomew is a surname or a family name and Nathaniel as we said above is his personal name. The gospel of John identifies him as Nathaniel while the other gospels referred to him as Bartholomew. Nathaniel is his Hebrew name. It means God has given. We find in the gospel of John that he is identified as Nathaniel. Now the other gospels, Matthew Mark and Acts referred to him as Bartholomew and he is listed as among the 12 apostles, they use his family name of Bartholomew. We can be sure that most scholars believe that Bartholomew and Nathaniel are the same person. Bartholomew, also known as Nathaniel is primarily known for his role as one of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ that led to his missionary work. His missionary work was particularly in Armenia where he is believed to have been martyred, he also was recognized for his initial skepticism about Jesus which transferred into an unwavering faith. It is written of him that he was present at the last supper and that he did receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

He also uttered these words when first being made aware of Jesus…According to scripture, John 1:46  “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” many Jews of that day believed that Nazareth and all the areas around Galilee were quite a wicked place. We all know from scripture Bartholomew or Nathaniel however, you want to view it, Bartholomew did see the risen Lord and he was present at the ascension. In doing my research and reading for this blog tradition indicates that Bartholomew was a minister of the gospel in Persia and in India. Now there are several reports or theories  of his demise one being that he was skined alive, beheaded, and then crucified because he refused to worship pagan gods. But there is really no biblical record of his death, it was also said that he was tied up in a sack and dropped into the sea. But whatever we read and whatever manner he left this earth he did die a martyrs death, all the apostles, except John died a martyr’s death.

Join us next week as we continue this series about how the apostles going forth after receiving the Spirit on Pentecost.

Life is Good

jk

Welcome to the back porch and the weather has been fantastic mid 70s to low 80s just perfect. I knew before we even got here to the porch that the ponder was going to be about the latest controversy that’s  engulfed the nation so to speak and that being Cracker Barrel. 

Founding: 1969–1980

Cracker Barrel was founded in 1969 by Dan Evins, a representative for Shell Oil, who developed the restaurant and gift store concept initially as a plan to improve gasoline sales. Designed to resemble the traditional country store that he remembered from his childhood, with a name chosen to give it a Southern country theme, Cracker Barrel was intended to attract the interest of highway travelers. Multiple origin stories of the name exists. From the 1760s onward, Scots-Irish settlers of the southern backcountry were called crackers,  Barrels of soda crackers could be found for sale in small-town stores across the American South in the early 1900s; people would stand around the barrels chatting and catching up, similar in purpose to contemporary office water coolers. Wikipedia

The Golden Arches are the globally recognized logo and a former architectural feature of the McDonald’s fast-food chain, originally conceived in the 1950s as a part of the restaurant’s drive-in design before becoming the brand’s primary symbol. Created by architect Stanley Clark Meston, the arches were intended to make the buildings stand out. While they have since been replaced by a single arch in the current logo, their cultural impact and recognition remain significant.

 

Waffle House, Inc. is an American restaurant chain with over 2,000 locations in 25 states in the United States. The bulk of the locations are in the Midwest and the South, where the chain is a regional cultural icon. The menu consists mainly of Southern breakfast food.

Source: Wikipedia

                                                              

 

These iconic brands above and I have passed over many more, have over the years become a part , I might add a large part, of the memories of many people. Now let’s take a moment and ponder about this. This hadn’t been on the front burner too long before right away we see politics and other things become involved. Actually, truth is the three that I have listed  have this in common. They have in their own right become American cultural icons. There’s a much bigger issue here and the group on the porch finally worked their way around to it. I’ve told you many times before, but I’ll repeat it again, I am 82 years old, and I grew up through my youth into my adulthood and into my older years with these places as my happy places. I hope that I can express this correctly without offending anybody. When we speak of cultural what I’m thinking about is that these three that I’ve mentioned fit the need of about 80% of the population. Waffle House is a working man’s place to eat. Simple meals of most any thing you want, anytime you want them, well prepared, fast service and nice people. McDonald’s my goodness, a busy mom’s dream. At one time it was Inexpensive, ain’t now but still a place where the children are welcomed and an atmosphere that you can kinda trust. Of course there’s Cracker Barrel. I’ve always felt like the Cracker Barrel was kind of the uptown place for us, country boys, rednecks, and people who favored overalls most of the time but it’s more than that…It’s cooking like you mama used to do…the kind that her mother taught her how to cook. It’s the kinda food served around the family table. 

So let’s not drag this out. As we get older things change…not always for the best. Most of us here on the porch agree that the big hurt for us is seeing our world slowly go away, one memory at a time. Cracker Barrel stock has been sliding for some time and here is the reason…Quality, Service and Value matter…in short they changed everything instead of the root problem. The quality of the food and service had gone south…and I don’t mean geographically. Value is not a negational thing. People like to feel like they got what they paid for. No, don’t blame WOKE, the value of an honest days work for a honest days wage is gone…and that ain’t a Logo thing.  

PONDER THAT!

Kurt

This week the pew continues to look at the dispersal of disciples that morning of the day of Pentecost. Today we’re going to be looking at Philip of basidia and James, the son of Zebedee. We will start first with Philip. We will list the key aspects of Phillips story. Jesus directly called Philip to follow him and that can be found in John1:43. Philip came from Basidia the same town as Peter and Andrew. It is written that Philip brought Nathaniel also known as Bartholomew to meet Jesus. Philip was always full of questions, particularly during the feeding of the 5000 and at the last supper and I think we can look at this as his desire to understand what was happening. Peter does not enjoy an explicitly detailed place in the gospel tradition. It is suggested that Philip became a missionary and that he potentially traveled to Greece and other regions. It is written that Peter did suffer and was a marked man, and tradition states that Philip was murdered in Hierapolis by crucifixion, according to some of the accounts that we have. As a clarification of our studying here, there were four different men named Philip in the Bible, two of those were King Herod the Great’s sons, by two different wives. To continue to narrow it down just a bit more, the other two Phillips in the Bible we’re servants of Christ and instrumental in the early church. There was Philip the disciple and apostle of Christ and Philip the evangelist. We also want to point out just for informational reasons that Philip did go and find Nathaniel and bring him to Jesus and he became one of Jesus’s disciples. We don’t have a whole lot of biographical detail about Philip or really of any of the other disciples, but John does record several times when Philip spoke to Jesus. Now let’s get to that other Philip. We usually distinguish him from the disciple by the same name by simply calling him, Philip the evangelist or Philip the deacon. It was this Philip, who was one of the 72 men who Jesus sent out although the Bible doesn’t make that connection. We do know that Philip was one of the original seven deacons selected to serve in the Jerusalem church. We also know that Peter did have a heart for evangelism, and when that great persecution arose, which we can read about in Acts 8:1, Philip left Jerusalem to become a evangelist in Samaria. There is more but we’ll save that for another time. There is one interesting footnote that I would like to note, that 20 years later Philip the evangelist is in Caesarea and Paul, Luke, and others were traveling to Jerusalem, they stopped at Phillips home in Caesarea and they stayed with him for several days. It’s noted that Philip had four unmarried daughters at that time all of whom  had the gift of prophecy. This is the last time the Bible mentions the evangelist Philip.

Next, we move to James, the son of Zebedee. Here again we have to stop for just a second and clarify the fact that Jesus had two disciples named James. James, the son of Zebedee and James the son of Alphaeus but we’re not done there another James the half brother of Jesus who was never one of the 12 disciples but was a leader in the early church of Jerusalem. You can find that in act 15:13 and it was this James that wrote the epistle of James. For our study today, we are going to focus on James the son of Zebedee. As we did in our study of Philip, let’s look at some of the key facts about James the son of Zebedee. He was among the group of 12 apostles’s chosen by Jesus of course, and it is said he was one of his closest followers. Now James and his brother John were nicknamed the sons of thunder by Jesus, and it was due most likely to their sometimes fiery personalities and religious scholars often said they were rather passionate about much of what they were involved in or around. He was also part of the inner circle of three disciples along with Peter and John, who were allowed to witness key events like the Transfiguration of Jesus and the raising of Jairus’ daughter. James was put to death by Herod Agrippa, we can read about that and Acts 12:1-2. James preached in Spain and his body was later taken there for burial. Some other things worth noting about James, when Jesus called him to follow him, he was in a boat mending the fishing nets with his father and his brother John. How strong was the call to follow Jesus when he called them? They immediately left their boat and their father and followed him, Matthew 4:21–22. It is from this point on that James was in full-time ministry with Jesus. There was a time when they made an unreasonable request of Jesus….Mark 10:37 They replied, ‘When you sit on your glorious throne, we want to sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.’ Jesus of course rejected their request, which was not looked at favorably by the other Disciples. Jesus did promise James, that he too would suffer, and as it turned out, he was one of the first of the apostles to be martyred. James learned much from that request that he had made to Jesus and we see how Jesus can mold us to blend with that which he wants done and to give us the courage to do it just by watching James as he grows in the faith. We learn without question that courage is a valuable asset in spreading the gospel, but at the same time, should not be allowed to descend into brash behavior. Jesus always encouraged those around him to temper their zeal with grace, and to carry on a steady commitment to the will of God.

Life is Good

jk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here on The Porch we have two fans, ice tea and a box or crate to sit on, the heat we could do without. The Ponder today is difficult one and not the normal type of ponder we usually engage in, but it is my porch. Drop back to the late 50’s and yes I was there…so were a few of these guys on the porch this evening. It was Fonzie, Richie, Potsie and Ralph and the gang at Arnold’s… Those were “Happy Days”. Those were the days before America woke up but those “good times” gave birth to a monster. Somewhere amongst the milk shakes, cokes and French fries,  someone ordered a basket of Hate along with a new culture on the side…Thus was born The Culture of Hate. We flew into the sixties heading for the moon, got there in 1969. Before that in 1964 along came LBJ, the Civil Rights Act and Viet Nam. Somewhere in all of this and before, there was a small voice screaming to be heard…Martian Luther King. Now here is my Ponder for the day. My generation has been named the Silent Generation… The Silent Generation (1928-1945): Came of age during the post-war era, known for their conformist attitudes and silent approach to political and social issues. We didn’t speak up when they turned the dogs lose on people, used the high pressure firehoses or in some cases physical force. We saw the coming of age of such people who used the misery of their own people to gain influence and wealth. I know we have jumped around on these dates but all of us are just sharing our thoughts as they come about. All this time festering in the background our schools and churches were under pressure to join this culture change that was now gaining traction. By now this new way of dealing with others of different agendas reached its ugly height…in In November 1963, JFK was murdered, RFK June of ’68. But it didn’t stop there, in April of ’68 MLK was murdered. It happened before our very eyes. We saw the birth of this Culture of Hate and reacted without compassion or reason, giving them a platform in the minds of others and becoming just like them. I will answer a question asked many years ago… Why can’t we just get along? The answer…Because we have chosen not to!

Ponder That! 

Kurt

After that lead in I found it hard to follow that up. So here is gotquestions.org in their lead opening in a fine article from their website. 

“Matthew in the Bible was one of Jesus’ disciples. Matthew’s Gospel, along with the Gospels of Luke, John, and Mark, is an inspired—and thus accurate and true—history of the life of Christ. His Gospel is the longest of the four, and some scholars believe it was the first to be written.”

Matthew’s footprint is a big one in our study of the Gospel being the first written and the longest of the four gospels. Matthew deals with a lot of firsts. It seems like all the other books in the New Testament were always disputed as to the authorship. The tradition holds that this book was written by Matthew. As we’ve already written, it was the first one and it was the longest but there’s one other distinction that makes it stand out. Matthew was a tax collector and most tax collectors had a skill that very few other people had. Tax collectors were expected to be able to write in a form of shorthand, which essentially meant that Matthew could record a person’s words as they spoke, word for word and that enhances the possibility that because of that in chapters five through seven, the Sermon On The Mount is most likely almost certainly a perfect recording of that great message. Matthew wrote this book in the early period of the church probably  AD 55–65. This was a particularly interesting time in the early church because most of your Christians were Jewish converts so this focus of Matthew on Jewish perspective in this gospel is understandable. One other point and we’ve probably missed a few more but other point was that Jesus chose Matthew knowing that he was a tax collector. This particular fact helps us to understand that Jesus came for all people. We must remember that Matthew being a tax collector was one of the most despised people in that society at that time. Yeah, Jesus, sees in Matthew the possibility of good. Jesus accepts Matthew as he is, That should be a lesson for all of us to learn from. Consider these things as we move forward:

Matthews gospel puts an emphasis on Jesus as the Messiah, Matthew is very positive in his presentation of the Messiah. It is Jesus… he is the one who fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies and establishes God’s kingdom.

Going back and looking at some things again we see that this gospel of Matthew, which is considered the most Jewish of the four gospels demonstrates Jesus’s Jewish lineage and highlighting his fulfillment of Jewish law and prophecy. 

We’ve already mentioned the sermon on the mount and how it is most likely that what we are reading in Matthews account is the real thing Word for Word. The Sermon on the Mount where Jesus delivers teachings on ethics, righteousness, and the nature of God’s kingdom. 

The gospel begins with the genealogy, tracing Jesus’s lineage back to Abraham and David emphasizing his messianic credentials according to most biblical scholars. 

More important is that Matthew emphasizes that Jesus is Emmanuel, meaning “God with us,” pointing to Matthews, unwavering belief and faith of the divine nature of Jesus Christ. 

The gospel of Matthew includes accounts of Jesus, performing miracles, and healing the sick and demonstrating his power and compassion. We find here in this gospel of Matthew, there is a frequent use of the phrase “Kingdom of Heaven” instead of “Kingdom of God”, a distinction that would have resonated with a Jewish audience according to some biblical scholars. 

Matthew closes his gospel appropriately with the “Great Commission.” this, of course is where Jesus instructs his followers to go and make disciples of all nations.

Life is Good

jk

Little if any thing going on here on the Porch. I have been at this keyboard several times in the last two days and the truth is I find nothing worth the time to Ponder. There is no civility in conversation and the media in general has lost all objectiveness. People are being paid to be disruptive in both action and simple discourse. Leaders and people of influence have forgotten how to speak the kings English and because they have no real knowledge of what they are confronting or a solution, they curse to express themselves. The church in general in under constant attack and the family unit as we used to know it is being minimized daily and our education system no longer teaches…it has become a tool of indoctrination. Our values are are now agenda driven and lack reason or kindness. Also to be considered is the ever changing culture driven new norms that are more frequent in today’s society. So…where does all that take me and you…? My sister Pam is going to two engagement parties for our younger sisters grandchildren. Sometimes right under our noses we can find a reason to be happy and thankful for. If we look hard enough there will always be something to celebrate. 

Now that is as they used say…a recitation of the doom, gloom and despair, in the world out there. It overtook the mood on the porch but  consider this. Stay at home in heart and mind … PONDER the power and joy of Family, keep it close to your mind and heart.

Kurt 

It’s kind of funny how things get turned around in this day and time I am referring to that phrase that past generations are very much familiar with a “Doubting Thomas”. Where did that come from? From the Christian mind, in the Gospel of John, Thomas is absent when Jesus first appears to the disciples after his resurrection. When told of the event, Thomas famously declares he will not believe unless he can see and touch the nail marks in Jesus’ hands and the wound in his side. The writings that we have tell us at eight days later, Jesus appeared again and this time Thomas was present. Thomas is invited by Jesus to touch his wounds, prompting Thomas to declare his faith with the words, “My Lord and my God.”  it was in the synoptic gospels Matthew, Mark, and Luke to put it in the way of writing lingo, Thomas doesn’t get a whole lot of ink so to speak and he was mentioned only in the listings of the apostles. However, in the gospel of John, Thomas plays a leading role with  two significant accounts. In John’s gospel, Jesus’ earthly ministry is nearing its end, and there are some people in Judea, who are plotting the Lord’s demise. It was during these times that the disciples receive the news that their friend Lazarus was at the point of death. The disciples were fearful for Jesus’s life as well as their own, and they tried to talk Jesus out of returning to Lazarus’s hometown of Bethany, which was near Jerusalem, where death threats certainly awaited them but Jesus could not be persuaded not to go. Thomas spoke to his fellow disciples. “Let’s go also that we may die with him”. Thomas’s readiness to stay with Jesus, despite the consequences is noteable. I am sure that there was a lot of uneasiness among many of the disciples and though Thomas’  outlook on things may have been a bit pessimistic and sometimes his words rather gloomy, Thomas demonstrated extreme loyalty to Jesus. I think it’s fair to say that many of us kind of fit in Thomases shoes we are deeply committed to our God, to our faith, to our church but we have doubts and questions just like anyone else. The story goes after the disciples were gathered together in a closed room and Thomas wasn’t there for some reason or other, but they passed on to Thomas the information that they had seen Jesus, that he had been there with them. It was at this point that Thomas uttered his famous words, “unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where his where the nails were and put my hand into his side. I will not believe.”

I guess it’s worth repeating with these famous words. Thomas learned a nickname that would be remembered throughout history, Doubting Thomas. Thomas’s deal was real and understandable, but it turned in to a truth, a loving quest, the truth being that Thomas’ doubt was not one of worldly opposition. It is important that we note at this particular point of our blog that Thomas had an honest skepticism and inquisitive nature which prompted him to continue to seek the truth when Jesus told him that he was going to his fathers house to prepare a place for them and the disciples were rightly confused. It was this honest skepticism and inquisitive nature that prompted him to be the first to ask, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way”? Several commentators have made a very very important point here. Jesus wasn’t talking about knowing a route or a location, but about knowing a person. Being sincere in our faith and asking questions doesn’t make us a bad person. Thomas was speaking honestly and with a sincere faith and that does not prohibit investigation. Today right now in our time we live on our faith after Jesus had confirmed Thomas’s faith he addressed all of us with these words from John’s gospel “because you have seen me you have believed, bless are those who have not seen and yet have believed”. These words of encouragement and validation from our savior have come down through the ages, and hopefully, as we read those words, we will be inspired to believe, defend our faith and live a fruitful life for him.

While it is true that Thomas demanded evidence of the miracle of Christ Resurrection before he accepted the truth, this doubt does not define the quality of his life. Thomas would go on to be better known for his loyalty, his obedience to the gospel, and his faith. Tradition tells us that Thomas traveled to India to preach the gospel and it is believed that he established Christian communities along the Malabar coast. I suppose that’s all that we’ll write at this point about St. Thomas. It’s interesting to note that faith overcame his doubts and he searched until he found the truth in that room confronting Jesus there and Jesus responding. I believe it can be honestly sad that his doubt became a lifetime of faith, service, and love to our savior.

Life is Good

jk

Well, the weather here has really been the topic for most of the weeks  we’ve had here in July and today it’s 79° what we’ve been used to was about 91 to 95 and of course feeling like it was 103 or four. So with the temperature being at 79 we thought well let’s try the back porch and see how it works. And I will say it was a smart decision. We’re enjoying it and we invite you to join us, pull up a chair or a box or wherever you can find and have a seat as we ponder some of the things that are going on. Sometimes, if you have a difficulty finding something to ponder on, all you got to do is read the news it doesn’t really matter a whole lot what you think or don’t think, agree or don’t agree with the news what it is. But we picked up on something and we want to share it and maybe turn it into a pounder this afternoon. We found a very interesting story about a lady in Fairfax County Virginia. She came to Fairfax County Virginia from a small sleepy Seattle suburb to run that district Fairfax County Virginia school system. Now the system is just right outside of Washington DC and it’s interesting what’s going on there. The ladies name is Michelle Reid and she now earns more money than a US president and she gets a car allowance and now she wants a taxpayer funded personal bodyguard. I certainly don’t want to mislead anybody so I want you to know right upfront the Fairfax County Virginia school District is rated one of the highest in the United States. They’re in the top 10 on overall SAT scores and in math and reading and writing and all of those other things at school used to be about they place very highly nationwide. Now she’s only been there three years butI still think that is good enough to give her credit for keeping the system where it’s at. Well, last November the Democratic school board voted to renew her   contract and they increased her annual salary to $424,146 that was an increase from $380,000. On top of that she gets $12,000 annual car allowance so I’d say she’s pretty well compensated for what she does. Let me repeat that this is a highly rated school district a very strong K-12 education system and their salary scale is based on position experience and education level the first year teacher coming in makes about $56,000 but as with all other school systems, they can earn more money by having advanced degrees potentially in this particular district of reaching out to 119,000 a year. So less ponder this, what are they doing different there that puts them in that position statistic wise against other schools in the country. I’m going to say that it’s the student base that they service, most of these youngsters come from military and government families close in and around Washington DC. Maybe it’s discipline  within their home, community, schools, whatever it is is something we need to ponder.

The next thing on our pondering list will be the situation in Cincinnati. I guess we could say that we’re really not too surprised about what has happened there in Cincinnati because in actuality they are a sanctuary city. We’re not gonna dwell on that and we’re also not going to dwell on race. It has really nothing to do with the race, it has everything to do with a deep driven common disrespect for law order and pure human kindness. I really don’t know how to view a situation like that other than to say there is no justification what was done to and by those people there in Cincinnati, regardless of what they may have or may not have said. Now don’t get me wrong every one of us here on the porch remember when we were growing up a lot of times your mouth got you in trouble because you said something you shouldn’t have said are you belittled another person. But I don’t ever remember any mob actions such as took place there in Cincinnati. I think one good point that was made was there was only one phone call to the police and that was it. If we continue on with looking at the news, we all I’m sure in wonder of the fact that now it is suddenly important what happened with the Russian collusion thing. We have all these hearings and all these political legal moves being made, and they will come to nothing they always do. I didn’t get any feedback from anybody by the way here on the porch about those folks in Texas that fled  the state in order to keep the assembly from having a vote on redistricting. I think the best thing they can do for the state of Texas it just don’t come back. As you know here on the porch, we always have opinions. We don’t require any evidence or anything like that. Everybody’s free to say what they’d like to say and we’re not in the business of contradicting someone or trying to make a scene. But here’s the ponder for tonight. 

If you ever during the 1980s or in that period of time ever watched the TV series M*A*S*H, there’s a line in there that I have never forgotten and he just sticks with me because it’s so outrageously funny and it doesn’t solve any problem and it doesn’t require a whole lot of effort. Now that works just well really well for us folks here on the porch. If you remember Sydney was in the OR, he was a psychiatrist they had sent there because the unit was having some trouble and I believe he received a head injury and came in on an ambulance. There was a shortage of doctors at that time so they drafted Sydney to help in the OR during that period of time. Sydney’s parting comment to them is what I want you to ponder…. The exact quote goes like this…. “Pull down your pants and slide on the ice.” Ponder that if you will.

Kurt