Talent on loan from God

 

Rush Limbaugh, like Donald Trump, is a polarizing figure. Either you loved him, or you hated  him. 

There is no common ground.

Limbaugh and Trump both gained prominence by catering to the religious right, Limbaugh, more than anyone, coarsened American political discourse, paved the way for the rise of conservative populism, and fed the rawness of the culture wars, which are the nightly fare offered by Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham.

Jonathan Chait, writing at New York magazine, captured the repugnant essence of Limbaugh's appeal:

Limbaugh oozed bile. He did not merely characterize his targets as misguided, or stupid, or even selfish. He rendered them for his audience as dehumanized targets of rage. He had special rage for feminist women, who were castrating harpies, and Black people, who were lazy, intellectually unqualified, and inherently criminal. The message he pounded home day after day was that minorities and women were seizing status and resources from white people and men, and that politics was a zero-sum struggle — and the victory would go to whichever side fought more viciously.

There is no denying that Limbaugh had a certain genius, but originality was not a part of that genius. He publicized conspiracy theories about the Clintons the way Oliver Stone publicized conspiracy theories about the assassination of JFK. He demeaned Blacks the way Fr. Charles Coughlin demeaned Jews. He advocated for states' rights the way George Wallace and John Calhoun had advocated for states' rights. Limbaugh liked to bemoan others as thugs, but he and his pedigree damn near cornered the market on thuggery.

 Why was Limbaugh successful where Coughlin and McCarthy had failed? In part, because his rise in shock jock radio coincided largely with the rise of the religious right in politics. In this great free country of ours, people can believe and worship as they wish. But bringing millions of voters who think dinosaurs walked the earth a few thousand years ago (until they failed to get a ticket on Noah's Ark and were wiped out by the great flood) into the political mainstream introduced a capacity for credulity without which it is hard to imagine Trump getting away with his lies about building a border wall and making Mexico pay for it. Or Sen. Mitch McConnell's backflip on confirming Supreme Court justices in an election year. Or the Texas Republican lies about the loss of power in their state being the result of windmills freezing.

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/limbaugh-indispensable-man-forging-trumpism 

 Trump himself is not a religious man, but surrounded himself with 27 spiritual advisors in order to give the impression that he was – and he captured more than 80% of the evangelical vote. He even convinced one of our neighbors that he was the most Biblical president in our nation’s history.

Limbaugh often said that he embodied talent on loan from God – and his listeners (all 62,000,000 million of them) believed him.

Rush was on the air for 50 years, staring in 1971, but the seminal Rush Limbaugh Show, debuted in 1988. He also hosted a television show from 1992 to 1996. However, he was not the first broadcast celebrity to have talent “on loan from God” The person that best fits that definition if the Reverend Fulton J. Sheen.

https://townhall.com/columnists/katiekieffer/2021/02/22/talent-on-loan-from-god-n2585097?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=02/22/2021&bcid=9d08ea620232d41a381be82339d3454d&recip=20627988

 

 

Fulton John Sheen (born Peter John Sheen, May 8, 1895 – December 9, 1979) was an American bishop (later archbishop) of the Catholic Church known for his preaching and especially his work on television and radio. Ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria in 1919, Sheen quickly became a renowned theologian, earning the Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy in 1923. He went on to teach theology and philosophy at the Catholic University of America as well as acting as a parish priest before being appointed Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York in 1951. He held this position until 1966 when he was made the Bishop of Rochester

. He resigned in 1969 as his 75th birthday approached, and was made the Archbishop of the titular see of Newport, Wales.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_J._Sheen

For 20 years as Father Sheen, later Monsignor, he hosted the night-time radio program The Catholic Hour on NBC (1930–1950) before moving to television and presenting Life Is Worth Living (1952–1957). Sheen's final presenting role was on the syndicated The Fulton Sheen Program (1961–1968) with a format very similar to that of the earlier Life is Worth Living show. For this work, Sheen twice won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, and was featured on the cover of Time Magazine Starting in 2009, his shows were being re-broadcast on the EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) and the Trinity Broadcasting Network's Church Channel cable networks. Due to his contribution to televised preaching, Sheen is often referred to as one of the first televangelists.

The cause for his canonization was officially opened in 2002. In June 2012, Pope Benedict XVI officially recognized a decree from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints stating that he lived a life of "heroic virtues" – a major step towards beatification – and he is now referred to as "Venerable." On July 5, 2019, Pope Francis approved a miracle that occurred through the intercession of Archbishop Sheen, clearing the way for his beatification. Sheen was scheduled to be beatified in Peoria on December 21, 2019, but the beatification was postponed after the current bishop of Rochester expressed concern that Sheen's handling of a 1963 sexual misconduct case against a priest might be cited unfavorably in a forthcoming report from the New York Attorney General. The Diocese of Peoria countered that Sheen's handling of the case had already been "thoroughly examined" and "exonerated" and that Sheen had "never put children in harm's way."

Bishop Sheen actually had more weekly listeners than Rush Limbaugh – an estimated 30,000,000 people.

What forced Bishop Sheen of the air, at the peak of his popularity, was some skullduggery on the part of the Archbishop of New York, Francis Joseph Spellman.

In the late 1950s, the government donated millions of dollars' worth of powdered milk to the New York Archdiocese. In turn, Cardinal Spellman handed that milk over to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith to distribute to the poor of the world. On at least one occasion, he demanded that the director of the Society, Bishop Sheen, pay the Archdiocese for the donated milk. He wanted millions of dollars. Despite Cardinal Spellman's considerable powers of persuasion and influence in Rome, Sheen refused. These were funds donated by the public to the missions, funds Sheen himself had personally contributed to and raised over the airwaves. He felt an obligation to protect them, even from the itchy fingers of his own Cardinal.

Spellman later took the issue directly to Pope Pius XII, pleading his case with Sheen present. The Pope sided with Sheen. Spellman later confronted Sheen, stating, "I will get even with you. It may take six months or ten years, but everyone will know what you are like." Besides being pressured to leave television, Sheen also "found himself unwelcome in the churches of New York City. Spellman canceled Sheen's annual Good Friday sermons at St. Patrick's Cathedral and discouraged clergy from befriending the Bishop. In 1966, Spellman had Sheen reassigned to Rochester, New York, and caused his leadership at the Society for the Propagation of the Faith to be terminated (a position he had held for 16 years and raised hundreds of millions of dollars for, to which he had personally donated US$10 million of his earnings). On December 2, 1967, Spellman died in New York City.

Sheen never talked about the situation, only making vague references to his "trials both inside and outside the Church." He even went so far as to praise Spellman in his autobiography.

 

Officially, Bishop Sheen would likely be classified as a conservative preacher, but his ideology really is not important. Whether you agree with his views or not, the fact remains that he was a hugely entertaining television personality, and would still be fun to watch today.

As a matter of fact, you CAN still watch him today.

 

The official repository of Sheen's papers, television programs, and other materials is at St. Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry in Rochester, New York.  

Joseph Campanella introduced the reruns of Sheen's various programs that are aired on EWTN. Reruns are also aired on Trinity Broadcasting Network. In addition to his television appearances, Sheen can even be heard on Relevant Radio. However, you can pretty much find whatever you like on YouTube. The clip below, in particular, is worth watching, since it literally predicts the events of today.

 

Bishop Fulton Sheen Predicts 2020 - Bing video

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My life flashed before my eyes.

 

28% of the American population believe that the words in the Bible are literally true. As a result, there are a number of elected officials in this country who believe the world was created in six days “as we know them”.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americans-bible-word-of-god_n_5446979

Mark Twain has been credited with this bit of wisdom:

It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.

There are numerous examples of contradictory information in the Good Book, and the links below will give you two quick examples:

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2010/09/bible-told-me-so.html

 

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2013/04/noahs-ark-and-othe-rfairy-tales.html

 

The Bible also says that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead (16^th chapter of Mark, the 28^th chapter of Matthew, the 15^th chapter of 1 Corinthians, the 24^th chapter of Luke, Acts 1:3, and John 20:26) which has led many people to assume that He was the only person to come back to life after dying. At his point, you need to refer to Mark Twain again.

The truth is, LOTS of people have come back to life after being officially dead – and it’s more common that you might think. Officially, it’s called a Near-Death Experience. Some 10 percent to 20 percent of people who come close to death report them — about 5 percent of the population at large. 

No two Near Death Experiences are the same, but the most common experience (in 80% of the cases) involved people believing that they have left their body. Another well-known feature (experienced by about one quarter of those having an NDE) is the “life review” — in which a person’s life flashes before their eyes. 

Some two-thirds of those having an NDE meet another person — often a dead loved one. What’s especially strange is that sometimes experiencers “meet recently deceased people who were not known to have died.

There have been at least 13 books published about Near-Death Experiences – and you can find all of them on Amazon:

https://www.joincake.com/blog/near-death-experience-books/

(I have read “Proof of Heaven”, by Dr. Eben Alexander)

The New York Post recently published an article by another doctor, Dr. Bruce Greyson, who provided NUMEROUS examples of Near-Death Experiences.  Here’s one of them:

“About fifty years ago, Dr. Bruce Greyson was eating pasta in the hospital cafeteria when his beeper went off. Startled, he dropped his fork and left a drop of spaghetti sauce on his tie. 

Greyson, a psychiatrist, was urgently needed in the ER to treat a college student who had overdosed. With no time to change his dirty tie, he grabbed a white lab coat and buttoned it up to hide the stain. 

In the ER, he found the student unconscious on a gurney, her breathing slow but regular. He called her name — “Holly” — and tried to rouse her. But she didn’t stir. 

Greyson left Holly and met her roommate, Susan, at the end of the hall in the lounge. Unbuttoning his coat, he sat down and asked Susan to recount everything that had happened. 

The next morning, Greyson returned to work at the hospital. Though Holly was awake, she was also groggy, her eyes closed. 

Greyson leaned in. 

“Holly, I’m Dr. Greyson,” he said. 

Holly stirred. 

“I remember you from last night,” she mumbled. 

Greyson was confused. 

“I didn’t know you could see me,” he said. 

“Not in my room,” Holly muttered. “I saw you talking with Susan, sitting on the couch.” 

Suddenly Holly opened her eyes, looked Greyson in the face and added, “You were wearing a striped tie that had a red stain on it.” 

Greyson was shocked. 

“What?” he said. 

Holly went on to recount Greyson’s conversation with her roommate and nailed every detail. 

“My immediate reaction was almost terror: This can’t be happening,” Greyson told The Post. “After a few days, I thought this couldn’t have happened. It must be some trick that people played on me.” 

The encounter, however, continued to gnaw at him. Greyson began studying these so-called near-death experiences (NDEs) from a scientific standpoint, collecting hundreds of stories from those who’ve had them. He discovered that Holly’s experience was not unique and that many people who survive the jaws of death report strange out-of-body experiences. 

Since meeting Holly, Greyson has published hundreds of academic papers and co-founded the International Association for Near-Death Studies. His search for answers is chronicled in his new book “After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond” (St. Martin’s Essentials), out March 2. 

https://nypost.com/article/five-percent-have-had-near-death-experiences-research/

Near-Death Experiences have not gotten a lot of traction in popular culture, but were prominently featured in the 1990 film “Ghost”.

 Ghost is a 1990 American romantic fantasy thriller film directed by Jerry Zucker, written by Bruce Joel Rubin, and starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Goldwyn, and Rick Aviles.

 The plot centers on Sam Wheat (Swayze), a murdered banker whose ghost sets out to save his girlfriend from the person who killed him. Ghost was theatrically released on July 13, 1990, by Paramount Pictures.

The film received mixed reviews from the critics but was a huge box office success, grossing over $505 million on a budget of $22 million to become the highest-grossing film of 1990 and at the time of its release the third-highest-grossing film of all time Adjusted for inflation, as of 2015 Ghost is the 93rd-highest-grossing film of all time.

Despite mixed reviews, the film received five nominations at the 63rd Academy Awards; Best Picture, Best Original Score, Best Film Editing, and winning Best Supporting Actress (for Goldberg) and Best Original Screenplay. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_(1990_film)

Here’s the best scent in the movie:

The best scene from Ghost Movie 1990 - YouTube

 

A word of warning:

Patrick Swayze died on September 14, 2009. If you see him walking down the street towards you – don’t panic. Just ask him how he like his new address.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

my 19th nervous breakdown

    

The Atlantic is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, Massachusetts, as The Atlantic Monthly, a literary and cultural commentary magazine that published leading writers' commentary on the abolition of slavery, about education, and on the other major political issues of that time. Its founders included Francis H. Underwood and prominent writers Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and John Greenleaf Whittier. James Russell Lowell was its first editor. It is known for publishing literary pieces by leading writers.

After experiencing financial hardship and undergoing several ownership changes in the late 20th century, the magazine was purchased by businessman David G. Bradley, who refashioned it as a general editorial magazine primarily aimed at a target audience of serious national readers and "thought leaders". In 2010, The Atlantic posted its first profit in a decade. In 2016, the periodical was named Magazine of the Year by the American Society of Magazine Editors. In July 2017, Bradley sold a majority interest in the publication to Laurene Powell Jobs's Emerson Collective.

Its website, TheAtlantic.com, provides daily coverage and analysis of breaking news, politics and international affairs, education, technology, health, science, and culture. The Executive Editor of the website is Adrienne LaFrance and the Editor-in-Chief is Jeffrey Goldberg.

 

Although I also subscribe to TIME magazine and 4 newspapers, what I like about the Atlantic is its in-depth discussions of a variety of subjects. The March edition that I got in the mail the other day, for example, covers the voting rights struggle, the monopoly of Amazon, climate change, and mental illness. The last topic, incidentally, is the one I found most intriguing.

As magazines go, it’s actually very cheap, at $50 a year. Since I am an educator, my price is only half of that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atlantic

April 1935 was a nervous month. Unemployment in America stood at 20 percent. A potential polio vaccine. The term Duct Bowl made its first appearance newsprint. A thousand-mile storm carried away much of Oklahoma, and Fortune magazine introduced its readers to “The Nervous Breakdown”.

The article quickly turned into a book, which said that the nervous breakdown as widespread as the common cold and the chief source of misery in the modern world.

To a large degree, we have returned to that state today.

 

The coronavirus pandemic.

Wildfires.

Indefinite home schooling.

Post-election political chaos.

QAnon.

Climate change (blizzards in the North East, and widespread power failures in Texas and other southern states).

On top of all that, there are struggles at the personal level. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 16.2 million Americans had at least one major depressive episode in 2016. This represents 6.7% of the U.S. adult population< Depression is most common in ages 18 to 25. (10.9%) and in individuals of two or more races (10.5%). One of our relatives developed agoraphobia at the age of 24, but eventually was cured by heavy doses of yoga.

One of the most recent victims of this phenomena is 25 year- old Thomas Raskin, who killed himself on December 31. A day after his funeral, his dad Jamie was in the United States Capitol building when it was invaded by an angry mob. Almost exactly a month later, Jamie Raskin delivered the opening statement to the SECOND Trump impeachment trial.

In the early days of the 20^th century, the more affluent members of society had ways to deal with depression. One of those options was the Hartford Retreat, where you could take six weeks to return to “normal”.

Some of American’s most well know individuals (John D. Rockefeller Jr., Jane Addams, and Max Weber) all acknowledged “breakdowns” – and re-emerged to do their best work. Rockefeller’s most recognized achievements (Rockefeller Center, the national parks, and the art museums) came after his breakdown in 1904, when he spent six months in the south of France for recovery.

A century ago, the famous Battle Creek Sanitorium marketed itself as a “Temple of Health”. (One of its customers was Rockefeller, who spent a week there in 1922). Since it was $3000 a week in today’s dollars, it was out of reach for most people.

Although the United States is lagging behind other counties in the treatment of mental illness, other countries have taken steps to alleviate the problem. Both France and Spain have made “the right to disconnect” from after hours communication an actual legal right.

Nervous breakdowns, as F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote of his own in his 1936 essay “The Crack Up” are “not a matter of levity”.

From 1933 to 1937, Fitzgerald was hospitalized for alcoholism 8 times and arrested several times. Fitzgerald's deteriorating mental state and drinking habits were captured publicly in an article published by Michel Mok titled "The Other Side of Paradise, Scott Fitzgerald, 40, Engulfed in Despair", first published in the New York Post, September 25, 1936. The article is considered to have caused considerable damage to Fitzgerald's reputation and his mental state, allegedly pushing him to attempt suicide after reading it.

By that year, his wife Zelda had become extremely violent and emotionally distressed, and Fitzgerald had her placed in the Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. Nearly bankrupt, Fitzgerald spent most of 1936 and 1937 living in various hotels near Asheville. His attempts to write and sell more short stories faltered. He later referred to this period of decline in his life as "The Crack-Up" in the short story.^[ Shortly after the release of this story, Hemingway referred to Fitzgerald as "poor Scott" in his short story "The Snows of Kilimanjaro". Zelda's institutionalization further deteriorated what was left of their marriage. The last time the two saw each other was on a 1939 trip to Cuba. During this trip, Fitzgerald was assaulted when he tried to stop a cockfight and returned to the United States so intoxicated and exhausted that he was hospitalized.

 Fitzgerald died of alcoholism in 1940, at the age of 44.

19th Nervous Breakdown" is a song recorded by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it was recorded in late 1965 and released as a single in February 1966. It reached number 2 on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and Britain's Record Retailer chart (subsequently the UK Singles Chart), while topping the charts compiled by Cash Box and NME.

 The Rolling Stones - 19th Nervous Breakdown (Official Lyric Video) - YouTube

Fortunately, there are easier ways to deal with stress, which Simon and Garfunkel pointed out to us in one of their songs.

Simon & Garfunkel - Feelin' Groovy (from The Concert in Central Park) - YouTube

 

O say can you see

 

Mark Cuban, the owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, has been experimenting with not playing the national anthem before the team's basketball games. Mark Cuban said that some fans were fearful of the national anthem, and that some felt their voices were being silenced. Fearing a backlash from some of its fans, the NBA quickly announced the national anthem would be played at games by all teams.

Despite that edict, the Dallas Mavericks have stopped playing the national anthem before home games and have no plans to start up again, team owner Mark Cuban confirmed to media outlets on Tuesday.

The Athletic first reported that the Mavericks had not played the anthem at any of the team’s 13 games at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. ESPN added that Cuban directed the team to end the practice after a discussion with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, although he did not announce the decision publicly until Tuesday’s reports.

“It was my decision, and I made it in November,” Cuban said in a brief statement to The New York Times.

Cuban addressed critics of his stance, namely Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), saying on Twitter: “The National Anthem Police in this country are out of control. If you want to complain, complain to your boss and ask why they don’t play the National Anthem every day before you start work.”

 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dallas-mavericks-national-anthem_n_6023667fc5b6c56a89a5561c?utm_campaign=hp_fb_pages&section=politics&utm_source=politics_fb&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000013&utm_medium=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3HYs9ptVa4ZfKSfjWTdi1zXFb8WMIGuYIi8PDTI-bkzjAyPBpa6YN6WsU

 Predictably, Cuban’s decision about the national anthem was met by scorn by some of our country’s conservatives, but his actions are very much in character. He has repeatedly clashed with league official, and has been fined often. His ownership of the Mavericks is completely fitting, since he is very much a maverick himself – which is why he got to be a billionaire to begin with.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Cuban 

As long as I can remember, the national anthem has been played at sporting events, but that was not always the case.

The first documented time that we know the song was played at a sporting event is in 1862 in Brooklyn. But the thing is, you had to hire a band. That was expensive, so it was only for special occasions - opening day, holidays - up until the time of World War II, where sound systems come in, so they could play a recording. And thus, they started to play it before every game.

In the 1950s, the Baltimore Orioles, of all teams, decided that playing "The Banner" before every game cheapened its impact. The general manager at the time decided that he was going to only play it during special occasions.

The Chicago Cubs owner felt the same way. And he did not play "The Banner" before every game until the '60s, during the Vietnam War. And even in the 1960s, the Chicago White Sox experimented with substituting "God Bless America."

Then 1968 happened, and things got crazy.

On January 23, the USS Pueblo was seized by authorities in North Korea.

The Vietcong launched the Tet offensive on January 31.

Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4.

Bobby Kennedy was assassinated on June 6.

The 1968 Democratic National Convention was held August 26–29 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, United States. On August 28, 1968, around 10,000 protesters gathered in Grant Park for the demonstration, intending to march to the International Amphitheatre where the convention was being held. At approximately 3:30 p.m., a young man lowered the American flag that was at the park. The police broke through the crowd and began beating the young man, while the crowd pelted the police with food, rocks, and chunks of concrete. The chants of some of the protesters shifted from, "Hell no, we won't go!" to, "Pigs are whores".

At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City in October, in the medal award ceremony for the men's 200 meter race, black American athletes Tommie Smith (gold) and John Carlos (bronze) took a stand for civil rights by raising their black-gloved fists and wearing black socks in lieu of shoes. The Australian Peter Norman, who had run second, wore an American "human rights" badge as support to them on the podium. In response, the IOC banned Smith and Carlos from the Olympic Games for life, and Norman's omission from Australia's Olympic team in 1972 was allegedly as punishment.

At the World Series in October, Jose Feliciano performed the national anthem on his guitar, and played it in a very non-traditional way. Fans were outraged, and his career suffered for a period of time, but eventually recovered.

 https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2019/04/12/jose-feliciano-susan-tigers-world-series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQkY2UFBUb4

In 1990, Roseanne Barr sang the national anthem in San Diego, and did such a poor job that she was booed by the fans, and (briefly) retired from the entertainment business.

During the 2015 NFL season, Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco Giants started kneeling during the national anthem in order to protest police violence and racism. Since becoming a free agent at the end of the season, he has been shunned by other teams – but he made a difference. Although he enraged Donald Trump, the league eventually came to the conclusion that he was right, and recently committed $250 million over the next decade to combat racism. 

https://www.npr.org/2016/09/04/492599463/how-did-the-national-anthem-get-to-be-a-mainstay-of-sports-in-the-first-place#:~:text=MARC%20FERRIS%3A%20The%20first%20documented%20time%20that%20we,come%20in%2C%20so%20they%20could%20play%20a%20recording.

 Francis Scott Key (August 1, 1779 – January 11, 1843) was an American lawyer, author, and amateur poet from Frederick, Maryland, who is best known for writing the lyrics for the American national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner".

Key observed the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in 1814 during the War of 1812. He was inspired upon seeing the American flag still flying over the fort at dawn and wrote the poem "Defence of Fort M'Henry"; it was published within a week with the suggested tune of the popular song "To Anacreon in Heaven". The song with Key's lyrics became known as "The Star-Spangled Banner" and slowly gained in popularity as an unofficial anthem, finally achieving official status more than a century later under President Herbert Hoover as the national anthem.

Key was a lawyer in Maryland and Washington D.C. for four decades and worked on important cases, including the Burr conspiracy trial, and he argued numerous times before the Supreme Court. He was nominated for District Attorney for the District of Columbia by President Andrew Jackson, where he served from 1833 to 1841. Key was a devout Episcopalian.

Key owned slaves from 1800, during which time abolitionists ridiculed his words, claiming that America was more like the "Land of the Free and Home of the Oppressed". As District Attorney, he suppressed abolitionists and did not support an immediate end to slavery. He was also a leader of the American Colonization Society which sent freed slaves to Africa. He freed some of his slaves in the 1830s, paying one ex-slave as his farm foreman. He publicly criticized slavery and gave free legal representation to some slaves seeking freedom, but he also represented owners of runaway slaves.

 

It’s not the end of the world if the Dallas Mavericks don’t play the national anthem at their games, since the song will be played virtually every where else at public events – and EVERYBODY loved Lady Gaga at Joe Biden’s inauguration.

  

WATCH: Lady Gaga sings ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ at Biden inauguration | PBS NewsHour