History & Comment for May 30, 2025

A look at historical and current events on this day, comment and humor so dry it would make a camel thirsty. 

Transcript

This is History and Comment for Friday, May 30, 2025

The year is slipping by quickly,  today is the 150th day of the year.    

Roman Legions under Titus breach the outer wall of Jerusalem in the year 70.  The Romans built a fortification around the city. It was so extensive that they cut down all of the trees in within about 10 miles.   Rome had tried for at least a century to get the Jews to come into line with the empire.   They had staunchly resisted.   By this time Rome was tired of playing nice.  

The first running of the Indianapolis 500 takes place in 1911.  At its inception it was a grand event,  but unlike todays spectacle, the cars were more “stock” cars that elite racers.   The idea was something of a proving ground and endurance event than pure speed.   Ray Har-roun was the winner with an average speed of 74.6 miles per hour.   Harroun’s strategy had been to maintain a steady 75 MPH speed. He was an automotive engineer and felt that a slow steady pace would greatly reduce tire wear and pitting.    In total he changed four tires,   three on the right rear and one other.  

The Lincoln Memorial is dedicated in 1922. 

The Tomb of the Unknows is an iconic part of Arlington National Cemetary.  The memorial was first designated when an unknown solider from WW I was buried there in 1921.  It has been expanded several times over the years.   In 1958,  remains from WW II and the Korean War are entombed.  

Unknown Soldiers have been an issue in battlefield chaos since the earliest battles.    It was a major problem during the Civil War and soldiers invented early forms of dog tags.   Today the state of the art for DNA testing should eleminate the problem.    There have been discussion of attempting to identify the remains.  

The Unknown from Vietnam was buried in May of 1984.  A private researcher published his findings ten years later and a suggested name.   With the families support the remains were exhumed and DNA test proved the suspicion.  The Air Force First Leuitenant was reburried at a National Cemetery near his Missouri home.  

It might be possible to obtain DNA and identify a number of other unknowns.   The department of Defense maintains a forensic office that continues to identify historic remains.   During 2023, the agency recovered the remains of 127 service members: 88 from World War II, 35 from Korea, and four from Vietnam.  They believe the number of unaccounted service member is more than 80,000. 

Birthday’s today:

Voice Actor Mel Blanc in 1908.   Blanc was know as the man of a thousand voices giving a voice to a very wide range of cartoon characters. Maybe most notable was Bugs Bunny.  But that was just the cake topper.   He voiced most on the Classic Warner Brother characters.   He certainly was talented, however a close listen to many of his characters reveals similar voice traits.    

Band leader Benny Goodman was highly popular in the decade before  WW II and known as the King of Swing.  Goodman was born in 1909. 

Restauranteer Bob Evans in 1918.  Evans took a few steps to find his  stride.   A resident of rural SE Ohio, he and his wife opened a small restaurant in early 40’s but that was sold when Evans was drafted in WW II.   Then it was making sausage much like another famous name in the market.   Desiring to make a quality product he began buying and processing whole hogs.   The sausage portion was always the major effort.  

Gale Sayers was a well known professional football player in the late 1960s.  He was born in 1943.

Relating to a different generation.   Kevin Eastman is 63 today. He is a co-creator of the Teenaged Mutiant Ninja Turtles.  

Country Singer Wynonna Judd is 61.

While June is filling the windshield and still a few days away the rancor over Pride Month is coming to bear already.   This is a very difficult situation.   On one side you have people that want to mainstream a behavior and lifestyle that the other side considers from strange to a significant moral issue.  

I have lived and observed long enough to have seen first hand the topic going from total taboo, to we want acknowledge, to accepted, to validated, to normalized.   It there is one thing certain it is target creep. 

There is little I can do or words I can say that will change any minds on either side of the debate.   While I can try to grasp the feelings on the side of Gays and I will grant the drive and emotions are real and in many cases not chosen.   How we react is a choice.  

There are extremist on both sides that should tone it down a great deal.   But conversely, silence is consent.  There was one poster today on the pro-side that was making claims that Jesus never said a single word against Homosexuality, therefore any Church person who claimed moral grounds was outright wrong.    Silence in consent.   The Bible is not a sex manual and the language is greatly tempered  in many areas.   I was shaken when someone cited an old testament passage that encouraged a Beer Party as worship.  So I found the KJV version and read it.   And if you read through the language that is what it said.   

Sorry folks, but Thou shall not commit adultery is specifically spelled out and Jesus endorsed the Commandments.  I know of no Biblical scholar that suggest that Adultery is limited to extra marital affairs.   The consensus is, any sexual relationship outside of marriage is adultery.   And marriage is not the broad definitions we have today.   One Man and One woman for life.   But look at the polygamy in the OT! That is never blessed, nor encouraged.  

A close study of the OT Hebrews and their religious restrictions were in many times directly counter to their neightbors and their religious practices. Which more times than not included sexual acts.   That line of thinking carries through to the Romans.   

I have commented a few times that I like to listen to Steve Brown.  He is a presbyterian minister with some very good thoughts.    He had a program maybe 10 years back where the point was, that the concept of Marriage with all of its intimacy was a type and shadow of God’s love and intimacy for his creation.   It went so far as to suggest that the marriage bed as ordained was a holy and high form of worship.    That will not preach in most Churches for being too risque’,  but it makes an interesting thought.   It is also consistent with a long list of Biblical concepts.   

I’m not looking to pick and choose a verse or phrase here and there to make any point.    But that concept aligns on many passages from Cover to Cover.   Which makes it a firm foundation.   

How should the Church deal with Pride Month?   Well, I can find no scripture that supports the idea of Kill a Commie for Christ!.   

Getting up at a Pride Event with a bull horn is not much of an improvement. Nor is passing out literature at said event.   

If I look at the broad concept in the NT.  It is that Christ repeatedly makes the point of love your neighbor.   And we have the story of the Good Samaritian, defining who are neighbor is in very broad terms.    Going to the point of proclaiming it is a new Commandment!   Folks to the Jewish way of thinking he was saying this is on par with Moses, if not above.  He distilled the entire Mosaic law into two concepts.  Love God and Love your Neighbor.  

Where we fail to grasp the NT Gospel is there are no big sins and little sins. Everyone good, bad, gay or straight, is fallen and on a lower spiritual level. Each needs God’s grace to have him and him alone, lift us up to that place we should be.   

However, I will be careful to not go into realm of “love is love”.     Society has cheapened that word.  Most times we could subsitude lust and have the same meaning and context.    The Greeks had five words for Love.   One for Erotic love and another for the unconditional commitment the Jesus implied.  That was called Agape in Greek. 

As humans who have some understanding of the Gospel,  we are called to Love our neighbor.   Agape’ as we do ourselves.  Yet there is a fine line in pointing out what the Bible clearly calls contrary to God ideal.    There is another Gospel concept that we should clean our yards up first before point out our neighbors.

Sorry folks, but the Gospel is hard and sharp.  

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