The United States is a nation with a motto "In God We Trust." God counsels us in Proverbs 3:29 Amplified Bible, "Do not contrive or dig up or cultivate evil against your neighbor, who dwells trustingly and confidently beside you."
Sometimes instead of trusting God, our government becomes an evil neighbor. Thirty-two US states practiced eugenics programs that included forced sterilization of the disabled.
Kim Severson reports in the July 25, 2013, The New York Times article "North Carolina: Budget Pays Eugenics Victims" that the North Carolina state board ran a eugenics program from 1933 through 1977 that sterilized about 7,600; on July 25, 2013, North Carolina became the first state legislature to approve payment to victims of government-run forced sterilization programs. Ten million is to be shared by each victim through an one-time payment on June 30, 2015 (Lynn, Charlotte Observer, "N.C. budget would end teacher tenure, pay some private school tuition," July 22, 2013.)
Fear of the sexuality of people who are different is part of our past and present. The 1927 Buck v. Bell Supreme Court decision ruled that forced sterilization of people with disabilities was not a violation of their constitutional rights. By the 1970s, more than 60,000 disabled people were sterilized without their consent. Forced sterilization is illegal today, but the sexuality of the disabled is not widely celebrated.
Nick Vujicic was born without arms and legs. Today he is married to Kanae Loida Vujicic-Miyahara. The couple have a son named Kiyoshi James Vujicic. As an adolescent Nick Vujicic says he experienced bullying about his sexuality. Vujicic writes in his book Unstoppable The Incredible Power of Faith in Action, "Day after day, he'd walk by me and shout out, "Nick has no --!""
God made our bodies, and we are to use them according to His design. 1 Corinthians 7:3 New Living Translation Bible says, "The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs."
A Nigerian proverb says, "Our children are living messages sent to a future we may never see." Kiyoshi James Vujicic is a child witness celebrating the sexuality of those with disabilities. Perhaps when he is an adult American society and other societies will think it common and not a point of criticism for people with all kinds of disabilities to marry and to have children.
Americans of Japanese and other Asian heritage were interned in camps during World War II. Starting in 1990 the US government sent survivors reparations of $20,000.00 each. Do you think other states should pay reparations to victims of forced sterilization? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195
Follow Michele F. Jackson on http://www.Twitter.com/Michelelove30.
Showing posts with label Japanese Internment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japanese Internment. Show all posts
Friday, July 26, 2013
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Short Steps, Long View
God designed marriage to be days of delight and sweet nights. Genesis 2:23-25 Complete Jewish Bible says, "The man-person said, “At last! This is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh. She is to be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” This is why a man is to leave his father and mother and stick with his wife, and they are to be one flesh. They were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed."
Biddy Mason didn't get God's plan. She got the responsibilities of a marriage-like situation without the rewards of legality and love. An African proverb says, "A polygamist suffers a lot." Biddy, an African American and Native American, suffered a lot. She was a slave of many masters including Robert and Rebecca Smith. Robert was the father of both Rebecca's and Biddy's children.
Slaves don't have too much say so in their own destiny. Robert decided to leave the American south and head west. He, his family, Biddy and his other slaves ended up in California. California was a free state.
When Biddy learned that California was a free state, she kept her thoughts of freedom for herself and her children, Ellen, Harriet and Ann, a secret.
Eventually Robert wanted to go to Texas, a slave state. Biddy let her secret out and said no way was she and her daughters going to Texas.
Biddy met many free blacks in California. Some were born free. Others escaped slavery. Biddy asked her friends about how to escape slavery.
With the help of friends Biddy presented a court petition for freedom. On January 21, 1856, Biddy, her daughters and other slaves of the Smith's were freed.
Many people dream of being married. Some people dry up in response to an unfulfilled dream. Others ask God for new dreams, and pursue them. Biddy's children didn't come from a dream husband, but she pursued freedom for herself, her daughters and others, and got it. With her freedom Biddy worked and acquired not only a house for herself and her daughters, but also other property. It wasn't easy. California had housing discrimination. Biddy decided to do something about the discrimination. Some of her property she rented to other blacks. Other property she donated for purposes like grocery stores, day-care centers and churches. Biddy was also one of the founding members of the Los Angeles First African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Everyone needs the right to live, survive and thrive.
Chen Guangcheng is married to Yuan Weijing. He is not in a forced marriage-like situation as Biddy was. However, he became internationally known for filing a 2005 law suit against a local government for forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China’s one-child policy. Guangcheng's lawsuit was rejected, and he was placed under house arrest.
Like Biddy surprised her slave master with an escape from slavery to freedom, Guangcheng, a blind self-taught lawyer, surprised China by escaping from house arrest in April 2012 and entering the US embassy in Beijing. A deal was worked out between China and the United States; now Guangcheng lives in New York with his wife and children.
Friends helped Guangcheng to flee from house arrest in China and to continue the human rights activism he was doing in China into the United States.
On Tuesday he testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee On Foreign Affairs about his family's persecution in China and other ongoing human rights abuses in China. Guangcheng gave Congress a list of 130,000 Chinese officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations.
Sometimes friends are afraid to help friends. 1 Peter 5:7 New Living Translation says, "Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you." That doesn't mean trouble will go away; it means we can be confident and courageous because trouble isn't going to stop God's purposes and plans to make His people more like Himself.
Guangcheng's nephew, Chen Kegui, has been in jail after using knives to fend off local officials who burst into Kegui's home after Guangcheng's escape.
Chen Guangcheng said, "Recently, many friends and neighbors who I have been in touch with by phone have been taken into custody by the authorities for questioning. They have been threatened and made to describe what our conversations have been about," (January 29, 2013, Reuters article entitled "Blind dissident urges global pressure on China over rights" by Paul Eckert.)
When we are in the process of improving a marriage or another relationship, Satan, the kingdom of darkness and those under their influence get upset and stir up trouble. Don't get hung up on the trouble. Behold God and His plans, and move. Some change is immediate. Much change is long-term. Pasos cortos, vista larga (Short steps, long view.)
Biddy walked almost 2,000 miles from the American south to the West where she could get freedom. Guangcheng may have hoped to solve forced abortions and forced sterilizations in China, but coming to America was a necessary step.
Japanese Americans and other Asian Americans were forced into detention during World War II. Japanese Americans and others had to take a lot of steps from the 1940s until 1988 to get Congress to pass and former President Ronald Reagan to sign legislation which apologized for the internment and said that the government's actions were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership." The US government eventually dispersed more than $1.6 billion in reparations to Japanese Americans interned and their heirs. Each citizen who had been interned was awarded $20,000.
No matter how many steps it takes to live in love and freedom, take the steps.
Biddy Mason didn't get God's plan. She got the responsibilities of a marriage-like situation without the rewards of legality and love. An African proverb says, "A polygamist suffers a lot." Biddy, an African American and Native American, suffered a lot. She was a slave of many masters including Robert and Rebecca Smith. Robert was the father of both Rebecca's and Biddy's children.
Slaves don't have too much say so in their own destiny. Robert decided to leave the American south and head west. He, his family, Biddy and his other slaves ended up in California. California was a free state.
When Biddy learned that California was a free state, she kept her thoughts of freedom for herself and her children, Ellen, Harriet and Ann, a secret.
Eventually Robert wanted to go to Texas, a slave state. Biddy let her secret out and said no way was she and her daughters going to Texas.
Biddy met many free blacks in California. Some were born free. Others escaped slavery. Biddy asked her friends about how to escape slavery.
With the help of friends Biddy presented a court petition for freedom. On January 21, 1856, Biddy, her daughters and other slaves of the Smith's were freed.
Many people dream of being married. Some people dry up in response to an unfulfilled dream. Others ask God for new dreams, and pursue them. Biddy's children didn't come from a dream husband, but she pursued freedom for herself, her daughters and others, and got it. With her freedom Biddy worked and acquired not only a house for herself and her daughters, but also other property. It wasn't easy. California had housing discrimination. Biddy decided to do something about the discrimination. Some of her property she rented to other blacks. Other property she donated for purposes like grocery stores, day-care centers and churches. Biddy was also one of the founding members of the Los Angeles First African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Everyone needs the right to live, survive and thrive.
Chen Guangcheng is married to Yuan Weijing. He is not in a forced marriage-like situation as Biddy was. However, he became internationally known for filing a 2005 law suit against a local government for forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China’s one-child policy. Guangcheng's lawsuit was rejected, and he was placed under house arrest.
Like Biddy surprised her slave master with an escape from slavery to freedom, Guangcheng, a blind self-taught lawyer, surprised China by escaping from house arrest in April 2012 and entering the US embassy in Beijing. A deal was worked out between China and the United States; now Guangcheng lives in New York with his wife and children.
Friends helped Guangcheng to flee from house arrest in China and to continue the human rights activism he was doing in China into the United States.
On Tuesday he testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee On Foreign Affairs about his family's persecution in China and other ongoing human rights abuses in China. Guangcheng gave Congress a list of 130,000 Chinese officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations.
Sometimes friends are afraid to help friends. 1 Peter 5:7 New Living Translation says, "Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you." That doesn't mean trouble will go away; it means we can be confident and courageous because trouble isn't going to stop God's purposes and plans to make His people more like Himself.
Guangcheng's nephew, Chen Kegui, has been in jail after using knives to fend off local officials who burst into Kegui's home after Guangcheng's escape.
Chen Guangcheng said, "Recently, many friends and neighbors who I have been in touch with by phone have been taken into custody by the authorities for questioning. They have been threatened and made to describe what our conversations have been about," (January 29, 2013, Reuters article entitled "Blind dissident urges global pressure on China over rights" by Paul Eckert.)
When we are in the process of improving a marriage or another relationship, Satan, the kingdom of darkness and those under their influence get upset and stir up trouble. Don't get hung up on the trouble. Behold God and His plans, and move. Some change is immediate. Much change is long-term. Pasos cortos, vista larga (Short steps, long view.)
Biddy walked almost 2,000 miles from the American south to the West where she could get freedom. Guangcheng may have hoped to solve forced abortions and forced sterilizations in China, but coming to America was a necessary step.
Japanese Americans and other Asian Americans were forced into detention during World War II. Japanese Americans and others had to take a lot of steps from the 1940s until 1988 to get Congress to pass and former President Ronald Reagan to sign legislation which apologized for the internment and said that the government's actions were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership." The US government eventually dispersed more than $1.6 billion in reparations to Japanese Americans interned and their heirs. Each citizen who had been interned was awarded $20,000.
No matter how many steps it takes to live in love and freedom, take the steps.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Aren't the Unborn Boys or Girls!
The unborn are not a part of their mother's bodies. The unborn are individuals. The life of the unborn can be started outside their mother's bodies. Frozen embryos are sometimes fought over in child custody cases. The unborn can survive both birth and abortion in the second-trimester and third-trimester of gestation. Surgeries and medical treatments can be done on the unborn.
"Doctors can almost always prevent transmission of H.I.V. from infected mothers to their babies by testing the mothers during pregnancy, treating those found infected with antiretroviral drugs, and giving their babies a six-week course of one or two drugs to prevent them from becoming infected. That works in the vast majority of cases, but when it does not, doctors provide stronger drug regiments to treat the infection in the baby," says The New York Times editorial staff in the March 5, 2013, article "The Intriguing Case of a Baby Cured of H.I.V."
Yet babies in their mother's wombs of the same age as those treated with antiretroviral drugs can be killed for virtually any reason by legal abortion except for some late-term abortions in fewer than 11 American states. Read my article "Abortion Hurts."
Science has forced some pro-choice people to now admit that abortion ends human life. Frances Kissling, a long-time pro-choice advocate and former president of Catholics for Choice, told Time Magazine in the January 14, 2013, article "What Choice? Abortion-rights activists won an epic victory in Roe v. Wade. They've been losing ever since," "When people hear us say abortion is just another medical procedure, they react with shock . . . Abortion is not like having your tooth pulled or having your appendix out. It involves the termination of an early form of human life. That deserves some gravitas."
The women's movement started out pro-life. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, passionately-in-love wife married 47 years, mother of seven, women's-rights activist and abolitionist, was both pro-woman and pro-life. In a 1873 letter to Julia Ward Howe, the originator of Mother's Day, Stanton writes, "When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit." Read my article "Pro-Woman, Pro-life."
Preacher, Abolitionist and Women's Rights Activist Sojourner Truth said, "You say women need to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches. Nobody's ever helped me into a carriage or over a mud puddle. And ain't I a woman?" Truth said, "I have plowed, and I have planted. I have gathered into barns. No man could head me. And ain't I a woman?" Truth also said, "Jesus came from God and a woman. Man had nothing to do with him."
Science has now demonstrated that human life begins when sperm and egg unite. Aren't the unborn boys or girls!
God loves all people even His enemies. Matthew 5:43-48 the Message Bible says, "“You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.
“In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”"
God even loves rapists, the women and men raped and the babies conceived of rape. None of these people should be killed. Instead God desires that people be changed into the goodness of His likeness. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 Amplified Bible says, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom). And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit."
Isn't it past time to outlaw all abortions except those that science is not yet sophisticated enough to save the physical life of both the mother and the unborn? Read my article "Thoughts About Abortion."
The loss of a child hurts. "I have borne thirteen children and seen them almost all sold off into slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief none but Jesus heard," said Sojourner Truth. Japanese American and other Asian American parents couldn't do much to protect their children when former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered that Asian Americans be thrust from their homes into internment camps. Read my article "Faith, Fear and Japanese Americans." Rock star Steven Tyler of the band Aerosmith writes in his autobiography, Walk This Way, about his abortion experience, “It was a big crisis. It’s a major thing when you’re growing something with a woman, but they convinced us that it would never work out and would ruin our lives. … You go to the doctor and they put the needle in her belly and they squeeze the stuff in and you watch. And it comes out dead. I was pretty devastated. In my mind, I’m going, Jesus, what have I done?”
"Doctors can almost always prevent transmission of H.I.V. from infected mothers to their babies by testing the mothers during pregnancy, treating those found infected with antiretroviral drugs, and giving their babies a six-week course of one or two drugs to prevent them from becoming infected. That works in the vast majority of cases, but when it does not, doctors provide stronger drug regiments to treat the infection in the baby," says The New York Times editorial staff in the March 5, 2013, article "The Intriguing Case of a Baby Cured of H.I.V."
Yet babies in their mother's wombs of the same age as those treated with antiretroviral drugs can be killed for virtually any reason by legal abortion except for some late-term abortions in fewer than 11 American states. Read my article "Abortion Hurts."
Science has forced some pro-choice people to now admit that abortion ends human life. Frances Kissling, a long-time pro-choice advocate and former president of Catholics for Choice, told Time Magazine in the January 14, 2013, article "What Choice? Abortion-rights activists won an epic victory in Roe v. Wade. They've been losing ever since," "When people hear us say abortion is just another medical procedure, they react with shock . . . Abortion is not like having your tooth pulled or having your appendix out. It involves the termination of an early form of human life. That deserves some gravitas."
The women's movement started out pro-life. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, passionately-in-love wife married 47 years, mother of seven, women's-rights activist and abolitionist, was both pro-woman and pro-life. In a 1873 letter to Julia Ward Howe, the originator of Mother's Day, Stanton writes, "When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit." Read my article "Pro-Woman, Pro-life."
Preacher, Abolitionist and Women's Rights Activist Sojourner Truth said, "You say women need to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches. Nobody's ever helped me into a carriage or over a mud puddle. And ain't I a woman?" Truth said, "I have plowed, and I have planted. I have gathered into barns. No man could head me. And ain't I a woman?" Truth also said, "Jesus came from God and a woman. Man had nothing to do with him."
Science has now demonstrated that human life begins when sperm and egg unite. Aren't the unborn boys or girls!
God loves all people even His enemies. Matthew 5:43-48 the Message Bible says, "“You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.
“In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”"
God even loves rapists, the women and men raped and the babies conceived of rape. None of these people should be killed. Instead God desires that people be changed into the goodness of His likeness. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 Amplified Bible says, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom). And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit."
Isn't it past time to outlaw all abortions except those that science is not yet sophisticated enough to save the physical life of both the mother and the unborn? Read my article "Thoughts About Abortion."
The loss of a child hurts. "I have borne thirteen children and seen them almost all sold off into slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief none but Jesus heard," said Sojourner Truth. Japanese American and other Asian American parents couldn't do much to protect their children when former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered that Asian Americans be thrust from their homes into internment camps. Read my article "Faith, Fear and Japanese Americans." Rock star Steven Tyler of the band Aerosmith writes in his autobiography, Walk This Way, about his abortion experience, “It was a big crisis. It’s a major thing when you’re growing something with a woman, but they convinced us that it would never work out and would ruin our lives. … You go to the doctor and they put the needle in her belly and they squeeze the stuff in and you watch. And it comes out dead. I was pretty devastated. In my mind, I’m going, Jesus, what have I done?”
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Faith, Fear and Japanese Americans
"Fear is a disease that eats away at logic and makes man inhuman." -- Marian Anderson, singer in eight languages and civil rights advocate
When Japan bombed American ships in Pearl Harbor not only was World War II kicked off in the United States of America, the US kicked out of their homes about 110,000 Japanese Americans living on America's west coast and forced them into War Relocation Camps.
Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt authorized Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, which told local military officials to designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones" from which "any or all persons may be excluded."
Sometimes all three branches of American government, executive, congressional and judicial, fail to protect its citizens and their constitutional rights. In 1944 the US Supreme Court upheld Executive Order 9066.
Japanese American Gordon Hirabayashi refused to go to the War Relocation Camps along with other revolutionaries. Fred Korematsu said, "If you have the feeling that something is wrong, don't be afraid to speak up." Hirabayashi, Korematsu and others were instrumental in bringing cases to the Supreme Court that addressed the injustice of putting Americans in prison because of their race. Hirabayahsi didn't realize what a fight was ahead for Japanese Americans to live in America with their civil rights enforced. He says, "We had Constitutional rights. I didn't think anything could happen to us. We had a rude awakening."
"Check your speakers. This ain't a self-help song or another makeover song but how He made me over. You dig. I like me," sings award-winning Gospel singer Kirk Franklin in his song, "I Like Me" with Da TRUTH. Franklin is also a songwriter, record producer, music director and author. Please leave an on-line comment naming songs by Asians similar to Franklin's and Da TRUTH's "I Like Me."
Some people live their whole lives with a No es posible attitude, but those who know and trust God " . . . are bold as a lion" (Proverbs 28:1). International Bible Teacher Joyce Meyer says that courage is not the absence of fear, but courage is doing things afraid.
We can ask God to marry and protect us like Ruth asked Boaz to marry her. The book of Ruth 3:7-9 Amplified Bible says, "And when Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then [Ruth] came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. At midnight the man was startled, and he turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet! And he said, Who are you? And she answered, I am Ruth your maidservant. Spread your wing [of protection] over your maidservant, for you are a next of kin."
God's ways are often not our ways. After we receive the marriage vow of complete forgiveness of all our sins, eternal life, eternal relationship and eternal, extravagant love from God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost (not polygamy, but 1 x 1 X 1 =1), sometimes we are madly in love with our Husband, God, some times we are just mad with Him. It is not always asan (easy) being sadi-suda (married) to someone perfect.
The Perfect One is patient, and He is developing a patient spouse able to spread the true Kingdom of God globally. Proverbs 25:15 Amplified Bible says, "By long forbearance and calmness of spirit a judge or ruler is persuaded, and soft speech breaks down the most bonelike resistance." Proverbs 25:15 Wycliffe Bible says, "A prince shall be made soft by patience; and a soft tongue shall break hardness." Proverbs 25:15 Contemporary English Version says, "Patience and gentle talk can convince a ruler and overcome any problem."
The fight for Japanese-American justice took from the 1940s until 1988 when Congress passed and Republican President Ronald Reagan signed legislation which apologized for the internment and said that the government's actions were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership." The US government eventually dispersed more than $1.6 billion in reparations to Japanese Americans interned and their heirs. Each citizen who had been interned was awarded $20,000. Please leave an on-line comment discussing: Should African Americans receive reparations because of African American slavery in the US? What about the unborn once Roe v. Wade legalizing unlimited abortion is overturned? Gospel singer Fred Hammond is an abortion survivor. Read his story and more in my article, "Thoughts About Abortion." If you received the $20,000 internment payment, please share what you spent it on.
Money matters. Money is not God. 1 Timothy 6:10 English Standard Bible says, "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs."
Poverty does not equal purity. Money is a tool. A Spanish word for cash is efectivo. Proverbs 10:15 Contemporary English Version says, "Great wealth can be a fortress, but poverty is no protection at all." Brian Tracy says in his book, No Excuses! The Power of Self-Discipline 21 Ways To Achieve Lasting Happiness And Success, that the top 20 percent of people in America earn and control 80 percent of the assets; he also says that these 20 percent people also started in the bottom 20 percent of income earners and practiced certain principles to climb from the bottom 20 percent to the top 20 percent. If you are a top 20 percent person, share some of your success principles by leaving an on-line comment.
Please also leave an on-line comment answering the question, "How is America experiencing the ramifications of the Japanese internment, African American slavery, abortion and similar evils today?"
When Japan bombed American ships in Pearl Harbor not only was World War II kicked off in the United States of America, the US kicked out of their homes about 110,000 Japanese Americans living on America's west coast and forced them into War Relocation Camps.
Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt authorized Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, which told local military officials to designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones" from which "any or all persons may be excluded."
Sometimes all three branches of American government, executive, congressional and judicial, fail to protect its citizens and their constitutional rights. In 1944 the US Supreme Court upheld Executive Order 9066.
Japanese American Gordon Hirabayashi refused to go to the War Relocation Camps along with other revolutionaries. Fred Korematsu said, "If you have the feeling that something is wrong, don't be afraid to speak up." Hirabayashi, Korematsu and others were instrumental in bringing cases to the Supreme Court that addressed the injustice of putting Americans in prison because of their race. Hirabayahsi didn't realize what a fight was ahead for Japanese Americans to live in America with their civil rights enforced. He says, "We had Constitutional rights. I didn't think anything could happen to us. We had a rude awakening."
"Check your speakers. This ain't a self-help song or another makeover song but how He made me over. You dig. I like me," sings award-winning Gospel singer Kirk Franklin in his song, "I Like Me" with Da TRUTH. Franklin is also a songwriter, record producer, music director and author. Please leave an on-line comment naming songs by Asians similar to Franklin's and Da TRUTH's "I Like Me."
Some people live their whole lives with a No es posible attitude, but those who know and trust God " . . . are bold as a lion" (Proverbs 28:1). International Bible Teacher Joyce Meyer says that courage is not the absence of fear, but courage is doing things afraid.
We can ask God to marry and protect us like Ruth asked Boaz to marry her. The book of Ruth 3:7-9 Amplified Bible says, "And when Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then [Ruth] came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. At midnight the man was startled, and he turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet! And he said, Who are you? And she answered, I am Ruth your maidservant. Spread your wing [of protection] over your maidservant, for you are a next of kin."
God's ways are often not our ways. After we receive the marriage vow of complete forgiveness of all our sins, eternal life, eternal relationship and eternal, extravagant love from God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost (not polygamy, but 1 x 1 X 1 =1), sometimes we are madly in love with our Husband, God, some times we are just mad with Him. It is not always asan (easy) being sadi-suda (married) to someone perfect.
The Perfect One is patient, and He is developing a patient spouse able to spread the true Kingdom of God globally. Proverbs 25:15 Amplified Bible says, "By long forbearance and calmness of spirit a judge or ruler is persuaded, and soft speech breaks down the most bonelike resistance." Proverbs 25:15 Wycliffe Bible says, "A prince shall be made soft by patience; and a soft tongue shall break hardness." Proverbs 25:15 Contemporary English Version says, "Patience and gentle talk can convince a ruler and overcome any problem."
The fight for Japanese-American justice took from the 1940s until 1988 when Congress passed and Republican President Ronald Reagan signed legislation which apologized for the internment and said that the government's actions were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership." The US government eventually dispersed more than $1.6 billion in reparations to Japanese Americans interned and their heirs. Each citizen who had been interned was awarded $20,000. Please leave an on-line comment discussing: Should African Americans receive reparations because of African American slavery in the US? What about the unborn once Roe v. Wade legalizing unlimited abortion is overturned? Gospel singer Fred Hammond is an abortion survivor. Read his story and more in my article, "Thoughts About Abortion." If you received the $20,000 internment payment, please share what you spent it on.
Money matters. Money is not God. 1 Timothy 6:10 English Standard Bible says, "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs."
Poverty does not equal purity. Money is a tool. A Spanish word for cash is efectivo. Proverbs 10:15 Contemporary English Version says, "Great wealth can be a fortress, but poverty is no protection at all." Brian Tracy says in his book, No Excuses! The Power of Self-Discipline 21 Ways To Achieve Lasting Happiness And Success, that the top 20 percent of people in America earn and control 80 percent of the assets; he also says that these 20 percent people also started in the bottom 20 percent of income earners and practiced certain principles to climb from the bottom 20 percent to the top 20 percent. If you are a top 20 percent person, share some of your success principles by leaving an on-line comment.
Please also leave an on-line comment answering the question, "How is America experiencing the ramifications of the Japanese internment, African American slavery, abortion and similar evils today?"
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