Thousands gather in Gaza to mark 21 years since Hamas established

On Sunday 14 December 2008 the streets of Gaza were filled with thousands of Hamas supporters who wore the traditional green color in honor of its creation 21 years ago. In the rally a Hamas man dressed up as the kidnapped IDF soldier St.-Sgt. Gilad Schalit and mocked him by pleading to go home to his family. While many have become aware of the name Hamas most Americans know little about who they are or how they were formed.
Hamas was created in Gaza in 1987 as a as a more militant, Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. The organization which is an Arabic acronym for “zeal” is committed to the destruction of the Jewish state and replacing it with an Islamic state in all of Israel, which they like to call Palestine.

Ideology:
Hamas preaches and engages in violence and terror in order to ring into fruition their plan to destroy the state of Israel and replace it with an Islamic state. However, Hamas is not limited to Gaza or Israel. Hamas is also in the United States. In fact, in the Dallas area we had Hamas for many years. In countries outside of Israel Hamas spreads its virulent hatred of Jews and Judaism which is deeply rooted in the anti-Semitic writings of Muslim Brotherhood theologians.

In August 1988, Hamas issued its Covenant laying down its ideological principles and goals. The goals echoed the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion and buy into and proclaim charges that the Jews are involved in an international conspiracy to gain control of the world. They see the Jews as the reason for all of the social and economic problems in the world. In the Hamas' worldview, the existence of a Jewish state in Israel is forbidden in Islamic precepts. According to the Hamas mindset the Jewish people have no legitimate connection to the land of Israel and it is their duty to obliterate the Jews and Israel. While many of the Arab world see Yasir Arafat as a hero Hamas views him as a traitor to the Islamic Palestinian cause because according to the view it is forbidden to anyone to yield or concede any part of the land they call Palestine.

Organizational Structure:
Hamas is both a terrorist organization and a mass social, political and religious movement. The military branch is reportedly divided into three wings: an intelligence arm which gathers information about Palestinians suspected of collaboration, an arm which pursues those who have violated Islamic law and the Izzedine al-Qassam squads who are responsible for most of the terror attacks. The al-Qassam squads are comprised of a few dozen activists loosely organized into small, terror cells. Hamas' military and political leaders are based throughout the West Bank and Gaza and the organization maintains offices and representatives in Teheran, Damascus and Amman. Hamas has a strong connection with Iran which has made it difficult in the United States supporting Israel if Israel chooses to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Hamas' military wing also utilizes the organization's social wing for indoctrination and recruitment. The social, cultural, religious and educational institutions of Hamas are well-known venues for anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatred and serve as recruitment centers for Hamas suicide bombers. For example, a Hamas-sponsored soccer team in Hebron provided a ready supply of several Hamas suicide bombers. In early 2006, Hamas began operation of a television station based in Gaza, Al Aksa TV, which broadcasts primarily religious and children's programming. The television program was based on the American Disney icon Mickey Mouse and had the character spewing out its anti-Israeli, anti-Jewish and anti-American rhetoric. Disney took the program to court charging them with copyright violations and the program was forced to remove the character. Even in removing the character from the program the producers were able to use it to spread its venom. The producers had the character killed on the program by mock Israeli soldiers. Since then the producers have added other characters to spread its venom to the young minds of children. Al Aksa TV – which Hamas says it hopes to soon broadcast via satellite to broaden its audience – is likely to become a key tool in propagating Hamas' extremist message. Indeed, the host of the station's children's program told the New York Times that his show "will teach children the basics of militant Palestinian politics."

Financial Support:
Hamas enjoys strong financial backing from Iran (an estimated $20 - $30 million), private benefactors and Muslim charities in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, Palestinian expatriates across the globe and American donors. Recently in the news Dallas held the trial of the Holy Land Foundation which was raising funds to support terrorism against the United States. In the trial evidence was produced linking the organization to Hamas. Its budget has been estimated at $70 million and 85 percent of it reportedly comes from abroad; the remaining 15 percent is raised among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. A number of Americans and U.S.-based charities have been implicated in funneling money to Hamas. It is estimated that Saudi Arabia continues to channel between $12 - $14 million to Hamas annually. At a June 2003 press conference, Adel al-Jubeir, a senior adviser to the Saudi Crown Prince, did acknowledge that many Palestinian institutions funded by the Saudis may be run or managed by the political wing of Hamas.

Syria remains a key center for Hamas operations, and the Assad regime provides support and protection to key Hamas leadership based in Damascus.
It is clear that we have Hamas in the United States and that the nation of Israel is not the only country at risk. Israel needs our support to help neutralize this group.

My Dream for Independence County

While I am an optimist, and will frame my article as such, I believe that we face some challenges going forward.  I will now dispense with what I believe we should do, can do, and hope to do post December 9^th.

I have a dream that as a county, we can come together regardless of our cultural identities, affiliations, or social circles and address the problems that we have.  When we, as a community, believe as a whole that we can do more good together than we can apart, our success will begin, and it will be difficult to stop.  I have a dream that as a community, this tax will give us a tool to use that will make our economic picture much more attractive, but that as a community we can start to look at other things that need attention and work from us as well.  I believe those issues to be substance abuse in our children, poverty in our working population, and apathy with all those in between.  I believe that when we as leaders and concerned citizens of Independence County realize all that we have in front of us, that as a collective, we can accomplish a great and many things.  You see, all these issues pertain to economic development, and while this vote and subsequent tax is related directly to jobs, these other issues remain and we can not sit idly by while areas of our county are deprived, while people have struggles, and our community still hurts.  Our future was given a significant lift by the passage of this vote, and it begins a new chapter in the legacy of Independence County of which I believe one day we can all be proud.  But we should ask ourselves is this the end or rather a beginning?

I have a dream that we, as residents of Independence County, will start on this journey of  revitalization by which we will see growth all across the county as a result of our vote, by which, we will have tools that will benefit everyone in our area.  I have a dream that ten years from now we will look back on this effort and consider it to be a time and a place by which everyone in this community put aside whatever differences were present, whatever resentments that we harbored, and brought to the forefront of our minds the concern of everyone else in Independence County and said that never again would they let their community get to be in that shape again.  I have a dream that we will all work on issues that share a common good and share a common fate, and those are of economic well being for ours and our posterity.

I have a dream that this effort will be just the beginning in a period of change that we will see in our community that will transfer itself to our youth, and those who genuinely hold the key to future’s door and that they will use with it a passion and a care that they saw in their parents and grandparents and was evident in their action they took to take care of their home, their community, and that of their friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens.  I have a dream that the children of Independence County will have learned a lesson in how a community who collectively became apathetic to important issues collectively became passionate again.  That when the children of Independence County look at this in their years to come, realize and will find true, that people can and will change, and all it takes is a collective effort and that the saying “no man is an island” is true.  They will look back and say that we, the people of Independence County, took steps to secure our future, and for that, they will be thankful for more reasons than can be explained.

I have a dream that does not end with what has just been enumerated in this article, but continues on a path and direction that our youth will set for us in the future.  Our dreams become realities when we take steps to see that they happen, and the only difference between dreamers and visionaries is the passion by which visionaries desire to get things done.  My dream has a lot of visionaries in it but in reality, it is no dream at all.  We have some very passionate people right here in front of us.  For our dreams to become realities, they just have to learn what passion looks like and means again.

My Dream for Independence County

As you read this article, it will be the Wednesday after the sales tax vote for economic development.  As I write this, I am contemplating the two outcomes and questions arise as to what both of them will mean for our community.  I do not believe that excitement would describe my thoughts if this were to pass would be accurate.  Nor would worried be my thoughts if it were to have failed.  Both of those are very temporary while the issues we face will take a little while to fix.  While I write this, I believe this tax will pass because I think the people of Independence County will have cast a vote for themselves, in the belief that they, as a group of people, can do more and do something about the economic situation that they find themselves in.  While I am an optimist, and will frame my article as such, I believe that we face some challenges going forward.  I will now dispense with what I believe we should do, can do, and hope to do post December 9^th.

I have a dream that as a county, we can come together regardless of our cultural identities, affiliations, or social circles and address the problems that we have.  When we, as a community, believe as a whole that we can do more good together than we can apart, our success will begin, and it will be difficult to stop.  I have a dream that as a community, this tax will give us a tool to use that will make our economic picture much more attractive, but that as a community we can start to look at other things that need attention and work from us as well.  I believe those issues to be substance abuse in our children, poverty in our working population, and apathy with all those in between.  I believe that when we as leaders and concerned citizens of Independence County realize all that we have in front of us, that as a collective, we can accomplish a great and many things.  You see, all these issues pertain to economic development, and while this vote and subsequent tax is related directly to jobs, these other issues remain and we can not sit idly by while areas of our county are deprived, while people have struggles, and our community still hurts.  Our future was given a significant lift by the passage of this vote, and it begins a new chapter in the legacy of Independence County of which I believe one day we can all be proud.  But we should ask ourselves is this the end or rather a beginning?

I have a dream that we, as residents of Independence County, will start on this journey of  revitalization by which we will see growth all across the county as a result of our vote, by which, we will have tools that will benefit everyone in our area.  I have a dream that ten years from now we will look back on this effort and consider it to be a time and a place by which everyone in this community put aside whatever differences were present, whatever resentments that we harbored, and brought to the forefront of our minds the concern of everyone else in Independence County and said that never again would they let their community get to be in that shape again.  I have a dream that we will all work on issues that share a common good and share a common fate, and those are of economic well being for ours and our posterity.

I have a dream that this effort will be just the beginning in a period of change that we will see in our community that will transfer itself to our youth, and those who genuinely hold the key to future’s door and that they will use with it a passion and a care that they saw in their parents and grandparents and was evident in their action they took to take care of their home, their community, and that of their friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens.  I have a dream that the children of Independence County will have learned a lesson in how a community who collectively became apathetic to important issues collectively became passionate again.  That when the children of Independence County look at this in their years to come, realize and will find true, that people can and will change, and all it takes is a collective effort and that the saying “no man is an island” is true.  They will look back and say that we, the people of Independence County, took steps to secure our future, and for that, they will be thankful for more reasons than can be explained.

I have a dream that does not end with what has just been enumerated in this article, but continues on a path and direction that our youth will set for us in the future.  Our dreams become realities when we take steps to see that they happen, and the only difference between dreamers and visionaries is the passion by which visionaries desire to get things done.  My dream has a lot of visionaries in it but in reality, it is no dream at all.  We have some very passionate people right here in front of us.  For our dreams to become realities, they just have to learn what passion looks like and means again.

George Washington's Presidential Proclamation from 1795 Re: Thanksgiving

This was published in the Columbian Centinel on January 1, 1795.
---------------------------------
Published
BY AUTHORITY,

A PROCLAMATION:
By the PRESIDENT of the UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA.

When we review the calamities, which afflict so many other nations, the present condition of the United States affords much matter of consolation and satisfaction. Our exemption hitherto from foreign war – an increasing prospect of the continuance of that exemption – the great degree of internal tranquility we have enjoyed – the recent confirmation of that tranquility by the suppression of an insurrection which so wantonly threatened it – the happy course of public affairs in general – the unexampled prosperity of all classes of our citizens; are circumstances which peculiarly mark our situation with indications of the Divine beneficence towards us. In such a state of things it is, in an especial manner, our duty as people, with devout reverence and affectionate gratitude, to acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God and to implore Him to continue and confirm the blessings we experience.

Deeply penetrated with this sentiment, I, George Washington, President of the United States, do recommend to all religious societies and denominations, and to all persons whomsoever, within the United States, to set apart and observe Thursday, the nineteenth day of February next, as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer: and on that day to meet together and render their sincere and hearty thanks to the great Ruler of nations for the manifold and signal mercies which distinguish our lot as a nation. particularly for the possession of constitutions of government which unite and, by their union, establish liberty with order; for the preservation of peace, foreign and domestic; and for the seasonable control, which has been given to a spirit of disorder, in the suppression of the late insurrection; and generally for the prosperous course of our affairs, public and private; and, at the same time, humbly and fervently to beseech the kind Author of these blessings. graciously to prolong them to us – to imprint on our hearts a deep and solemn sense of our obligations to Him for them – to teach us rightly to estimate their immense value – to preserve us from the arrogance of prosperity and from hazarding the advantages we enjoy by delusive pursuits – to dispose us to merit the continuance of His favors by not abusing them, by our gratitude for them, and by a correspondent conduct as citizens and as men – to render this country, more and more, a propitious asylum for the unfortunate of other countries – to extend among us true and useful knowledge – to diffuse and establish habits of sobriety, order, morality, and piety – and, finally, to impart all blessings we possess or ask for ourselves, to the whole family of mankind.

In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States of America, to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand. Done, at the city of Philadelphia, the first day of January, 1795, and of the independence of the United States of America, the nineteenth.

George Washington, President of the United States
Edmund Randolph, Secretary of State.

Giving Thanks

It’s that time of year again. When we get together with friends and family and stuff ourselves with so much food that we resemble the turkey we’ve just consumed! I’m often amazed at all the time, preparation, and cooking that goes into making this meal so perfect and how quickly it’s over with.

Every year I find myself overwhelmed with making grocery lists, shopping, or if traveling, making sure we have everything we need to make it to where we’re going and back.

As a young child I remembered learning about how the pilgrims and Indians sat down to eat and gave thanks for their many blessings. Every year in elementary school we’d put on skits with some children dressed as pilgrims, some as Indians, and one special child who was given the glorious task of being the turkey! The real excitement to us was having time off from school and getting to eat lots of good food! As kids, we weren’t caught up in the whole 'giving thanks' concept.

As a nation, we are really blessed and dare I say spoiled. We have a tendency to constantly gripe and complain because we want a bigger house, a better car, a better job, more money, and the list goes on and on. It seems as though our happiness is based on what we can obtain and whether we get more of it or not. Now before you get the stones out, I’ve been just as guilty of doing the same thing.

One year in particular I was working at our local hospital in the admissions department and I was grumbling to myself about how bad I had it. Poor little me wanted a new car, a better house, new furniture, a better job etc., and everyone had it better than me. You get the picture. Just think of the old Hee Haw song 'gloom, dispair, and agony on me' and you’d have nailed my mood that day! A moment later a young lady and man came in with an infant in tow. The lady was wearing a paper mask that covered her nose and mouth and after checking in they went to the other side of the waiting room where no one else was. I asked my coworker why the lady had a mask and was told that she had cancer and was undergoing treatment. Fifteen minutes later another lady I’d met the previous week came in and was having a finger amputated because of a spider bite. Later that day a man came in who was having a leg amputated because of diabetes. This is pretty much how the rest of my day went. I’ve found that it’s really hard to feel sorry for yourself in a hospital because you realize very quickly how blessed you really are.

That night I went home and thanked God for so many things that we take for granted like my health, my body parts being whole, for every breath that I am able to take freely without a machine, for the food on my table and a roof over my head, for my family, for my car that is so dependable, for my sense of humor and joy, for clean, hot running water to soak in, for the bargain I got on ground beef at the store, for the freedom to worship where and how I want freely and without persecution. We have so many freedoms and liberties that people in other countries can only dream about and we get so busy with living the American dream that we rarely stop to take time to consider all we do have and to be grateful for it.

This year as you celebrate Thanksgiving, enjoy the time you are able to spend with friends and family and the abundance of food you are fortunate to have, but remember to take a moment as a family and give thanks for all that you have been blessed with. Especially those things that money can't buy.